LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London made a lacklustre start to trade on Friday, with specialist insurer Beazley the stand-out performer, as investors await the US jobs report.
FTSE 250-listed Beazley led the mid-cap gainers in early trade, up 9.1%, after it increased its pretax profit in 2016, a year of strong growth in premiums written.
The company, which is a member of the Lloyd's market, reported pretax profit of USD293.2 million for 2016, up from USD284.0 million the prior year.
Beazley noted the rise in profit was driven primarily by higher investment return, with net investment income rising to USD93.1 million from USD57.6 million. Meanwhile, Beazley said gross premiums written in the year were 6% higher than in 2015, and net premiums written rose by 8%.
Beazley declared a second interim dividend of 7.0 pence, bringing its full-year dividend to 10.5p, up from 9.9p the prior year. The insurer also announced a special dividend of 10.0p per share, less than the 18.4p declared in 2015.
The FTSE 100 index was up 0.2%, or 13.17 points, at 7,153.92. The FTSE 250 was up 0.4% at 18,340.02 and the AIM All-Share was flat at 890.18.
The BATS UK 100 index was up 0.1% at 12,092.01, the BATS 250 was up 0.5% at 16,659.61 and the BATS Small Companies was down 0.2% at 10,844.07.
In Europe, the French CAC 40 was up 0.4% and the German DAX 30 was up 0.1%.
In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 closed flat. The Shanghai market returned to trade for the first time this week after Chinese New Year holiday and closed down 0.6%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong ended down 0.2%.
The People's Bank of China unexpectedly lifted its interest rates on open market operations and funds provided through Standing Lending Facility on Friday. The bank raised the 7-day reverse repo rate by 10 basis points to 2.35%. Similarly, the 14-day reverse repo rate was lifted to 2.5%. The overnight rate for the Standing Lending Facility loan was lifted to 3.1%.
It has been a relatively quiet morning for UK corporate news. Home emergency cover provider Homeserve said it has acquired shareholdings in UK-based Checkatrade and Spanish firm Habitissimo for a total of GBP37.0 million.
HomeServe bought a 40% stake in Checkatrade, an online directory for tradespeople which attracts around 1.0 million unique users per month.
The FTSE 250 group also acquired a 70% holding in Habitissimo, with an option to acquire the remaining 30% of the business within five years. Habitissimo is a Spanish equivalent to Checkatrade, connecting home owners and consumers with tradespeople in Spain. HomeServe traded up 1.3%.
Payment processing firm Paysafe Group traded up 2.1% after UBS initiated it with a Buy rating.
Electra Private Equity, up 1.8%, said it will receive GBP203.0 million in proceeds from the sale of Audiotonix by its investment manager.
FTSE 250-listed Electra said Epiris LLP, its investment manager, has agreed the sale of the audio mixing console manufacturer to European private equity firm Astorg.
Electra's proceeds from the sale represent an uplift of GBP62.0 million, or 44%, from the carrying value of its Audiotonix investment as at September 30. This equates to a pro-forma increase of 133 pence in net asset value per share.
The main event in the economic calendar is the January US jobs report, due at 1330 GMT. The consensus estimate for non-farm payrolls according to FXStreet is for an increase of 175,000 jobs, improving from the 156,000 jobs in December. The US unemployment rate is expected to remain stable at 4.7%, and average hourly earnings growth is expected to slow to 0.2% month-on-month from 0.4% in December.
Elsewhere in the calendar, Markit services purchasing managers' index readings for France, Germany, the eurozone and the UK are at 0850 GMT, 0855 GMT, 0900 GMT and 0930 GMT, respectively. Eurozone retail sales are at 1000 GMT. Markit services and composite PMI for the US are at 1445 GMT, ISM non-manufacturing PMI is at 1500 GMT, as are factory orders. The Baker Hughes US oil rig count is at 1800 GMT.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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