EI Group Share News (EIG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - London stocks enjoyed a slight rebound on Tuesday following the previous session's trade war jitters. However, Oanda questioned how sustainable Tuesday's bounce is given the ramp-up in tensions between the US and China, which could spill over to Europe.Meanwhile, the pound was slightly softer as official data showed UK unemployment nudged down in March, but wage growth slowed. The FTSE 100 was up 60.84 points, or 0.9%, at 7,224.52 Tuesday midday, having closed down 0.6% on Monday.The FTSE 250 index was up 195.44 points, or 1.1%, at 19,322.32, while the AIM All-Share was up 0.3% at 953.92.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.8% at 12,252.29. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.9% at 17,373.84. The Cboe UK Small Companies was up 0.1% at 11,714.52.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 1.1% on Monday while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was 0.5% higher."A messy start to the week in markets is being given a temporary break on Tuesday, something that may just be a dead cat bounce at an otherwise nervy time," said Craig Erlam at Oanda."The announcement of increased tariffs between the US and China has clearly shaken investors and once again we're already talking about the next round," said Erlam. "We've gone full circle from a deal to being a matter of time from being done to the prospect of full tariffs between the world's two largest economies."A trade dispute that had simmered for months boiled over on Friday when the White House raised tariffs on USD200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10% to 25% and threatened to raise tariffs on the remaining Chinese imports.China then announced a retaliatory increase of up to 25% in tariffs on USD60 billion worth of US imports starting June 1 as an ongoing trade war between the world's two largest economies widened.President Donald Trump on Monday said the US is in a better position than China to withstand economic pressure from trade tensions, and added that he still has leverage in the form of tariffs on another USD325 billion worth of goods."If we get full tariffs on China, the question then becomes where Trump targets next. If his ratings don't suffer and even improve, does he turn his attention to Europe?" questioned Oanda's Erlam.In the US on Tuesday, stocks are pointed higher, following Europe's lead. The Dow Jones Industrials are called up 0.5%, the S&P 500 up 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.9%.To come in the US economic calendar, important and export price indices are at 1330 BST, with the Redbook index due at the same time.In UK economic data, figures showed unemployment edged lower in March though the pace of wage growth slowed.The Office for National Statistics said average weekly earnings in the UK, including bonuses, rose 3.2% year-on-year in the three months to March, slower than the 3.5% posted in February and below market consensus, as cited by FXStreet, of 3.4%.Excluding bonuses, earnings were up 3.3%, in line with consensus but slowing from February's 3.4% increase.The unemployment rate was 3.8%, down from 3.9% in February and the lowest figure since 1974. Unemployment has been declining steadily since 2011, the ONS noted, with the latest data representing continued labour market firming.While Tuesday's data was solid, there are some signs that trouble lies ahead, said ING."There are some early warning signs emerging from the jobs market," noted James Smith, developed markets economist at ING. "Employment growth has slowed since the start of the year, which tallies with various survey indicators that have hinted at reduced appetite to hire.""Having said all of that, it's still early days and for the time being, we don't expect any of this to change the Bank of England's positive outlook on wage growth," he added.The pound was quoted at USD1.2945 at midday following the economic data, soft compared to USD1.2960 late Monday.The euro, meanwhile, stood at USD1.1233 at midday, flat on USD1.1234 at the equities close on Monday.Final data showed the German consumer price index accelerated considerably in April, both on an annual and monthly basis, mainly due to the timing of Easter this year. Year-on-year, the inflation rate in Germany rose by 2.0% in April from an 11-month low of 1.3% in March, in line with market expectations and earlier flash data.Month-on-month, the consumer price index increased substantially by 1.0% in April from 0.4% reported in March, also matching market consensus and confirming preliminary data. However, Germany's economic sentiment weakened unexpectedly in May, survey data from the ZEW-Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research showed. The economic sentiment index fell to -2.1 in May from +3.1 in April. The reading was expected to rise to 5.0.In London, the FTSE 100 was higher on Tuesday thanks to the likes of DCC and Standard Life Aberdeen.Sales and marketing services company DCC rose 2.9% after upping its dividend amid a strong rise in annual earnings on the back of both acquisitions and organic growth. For the year ended March 31, the company reported pretax profit of GBP327.4 million, up from GBP260.2 million in the year ago period, on a revenue of GBP15.23 billion and GBP13.12 billion, respectively.DCC raised its final dividend by 14% to 93.37p per share, giving a total payout of 138.35p, up 13% from 122.98p paid a year ago.Standard Life Aberdeen, up 1.6%, reported a rise in first-quarter assets under management & administration.At March 31, the Edinburgh-headquartered investment company reported assets under management & administration of GBP568.9 billion, 3.2% higher than the GBP551.5 billion reported at December 31.Standard Life Aberdeen attributed the rise in overall assets to "positive" market movements, but this was offset partly by the strength of sterling in the period.Providing a slight drag at the bottom of the FTSE 100 index was Land Securities, down 1.4% as it posted a widened loss for its recently-ended financial year. For the year ended March 31, the commercial property developer's pretax loss widened to GBP123 million from a GBP43 million loss the year before.However, adjusted pretax profit was up 8.9% to GBP442 million from GBP406 million last year, reflecting the benefit of income from completed developments, high occupancy, and the effect of refinancing bonds in the previous financial year.At March 31, Land Securities' net asset value per share stood at 1,341 pence compared to 1,404p at the same time last year, a 4.5% decrease.A double-digit rise for baker Greggs, up 14%, boosted the mid-cap FTSE 250. The baker said recent momentum has continued, resulting in the sausage roll maker expecting annual profit ahead of previous forecasts.Sales in the first 19 weeks of 2019 were up 15% year-on-year, well ahead of the 4.7% growth reported for the same period of 2018. On a like-for-like basis, company-managed store sales growth was 11% compared to just 1.0% a year before.Greggs in March reported a "very strong" start to 2019, in part due to the publicity around the launch of its vegan sausage roll. This momentum has continued, it said, helped by the new vegan sausage rolls now being available in all stores.Greggs shares hit a record high of 2,070 pence in morning trade on Tuesday.Ei Group was also among the risers, up 5.5% after the pub company extended its share buyback programme. Ei is to add GBP30 million to the programme, on top of the GBP35 million announced in March.Meanwhile, for the six months to March, Ei's revenue rose 7.0% to GBP353 million, but pretax profit slipped 71% to GBP13 million due to a net loss on a property sale. On an adjusted basis, Ei's pretax profit increased by 3.5% to GBP59 million.Towards the bottom of the mid-caps was Renishaw, slipping 6.6% as it warned on annual profit. Renishaw, which makes high-precision products for the metrology and healthcare markets, reported a 19% fall in pretax profit for the nine months to March, at GBP84.8 million. The adjusted figure dipped 18% to GBP79.6 million.Following this soft performance, Renishaw now expects pretax profit in the range of GBP111 million to GBP126 million for its year ending June, and adjusted pretax profit between GBP105 million to GBP120 million.In March, Renishaw guided for a pretax profit of GBP123 million to GBP141 million, and the adjusted figure between GBP117 million to GBP135 million.