Esure Group Share News (ESUR)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were broadly higher early on Friday with M&A action prominent, leading to both Inmarsat and BCA Marketplace falling in early trade.Among the large caps, Direct Line Insurance and AB Foods suffered from broker action while in the FTSE 250 Inmarsat shares slumped as it rejected another proposal from EchoStar Corp.The FTSE 100 index was up 0.3%, or 20.56 points, at 7,632.73. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 4.28 points at 20,616.11 while the AIM All-Share index was up 0.1% at 1,083.82.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.3% at 12,921.14, the Cboe UK 250 was marginally higher at 18,844.91, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was up 0.1% at 12,585.85.In the FTSE 100 index, jet engine maker Rolls-Royce was down 0.5% as it said it has agreed to sell its Commercial Marine business to Kongsberg for a total of GBP500 million.Net proceeds for Rolls-Royce will be between GBP350 million and GBP400 million, and the sale comes after the company launched a review into the business in January.Rolls-Royce said the proceeds will be used for the "resilience" of its balance sheet and to provide funds to pursue other opportunities.Dragging the blue-chip index was Direct Line Insurance, down 3.0%, as Barclays cut the firm to an Equal Weight Rating from Overweight. Its price target has also been reduced to 357 pence from 420p.Also suffering from a price target cut was AB Foods, down 1.5%. Deutsche Bank, holding its Buy rating, reduced its price target to 3,100p from 3,300p while Goldman Sachs has cut its price target to 2,840p from 3,000p, keeping a Neutral rating. In the midcaps, Inmarsat was down 11% as EchoStar said the former has rejected a second takeover proposal, though it is continuing to attempt to talk to Inmarsat over a deal.Under the second proposal, Inmarsat shareholders would have got 265p in cash per share and 0.0777 new EchoStar Class A common stock. EchoStar would also offer USD296,225 in both cash and shares to holders of Inmarsat's 3.875% convertible bonds due in 2023, meaning the total offer for Inmarsat, including the bonds, would be GBP3.2 billion.Inmarsat shares closed flat at 526p each on Thursday, giving it a market capitalisation of GBP2.43 billion. The latest proposal is, however, well above Inmarsat's 363p price at the end of May before the first proposal was made.BCA Marketplace was 4.2% lower as it noted neither Apax Partners nor any funds advised by Apax plan on making an offer for the company, following a statement by Apax confirming it would not make a bid.In mid-June, private equity firm Apax said it was considering an offer for used vehicle marketplace BCA, with the latter rejected a preliminary all-cash offer from Apax in May.Just Group was down 3.1% as JPMorgan cut it to Underweight from Neutral, while its price target has been reduced to 137p from 166p. Esure was 2.8% lower as Barclays reduced its rating for the firm's stock to Underweight from Equal Weight, cutting its price target to 220p from 264p. Elsewhere, Wilmington shares plunged 26% as it warned on both profit and revenue for its new financial year due to an increase in costs due to inflationary pressure. For its year ending next June, the firm expects low single digit revenue growth and for profit to fall year-on-year in the high single digits. Looking to its recently ended year, which finished on June 30, adjusted pretax profit is expected to be in line with expectations despite revenue falling to around GBP122 million from GBP120.3 million.In its second half, trading did not pick up as expected, and revenue will be down 3% on an organic basis. Its Healthcare division continues to be challenging, while Wilmington's Professional arm had a "reasonable" year. Risk & Compliance did better in the second half of its year. Acacia Mining was down 3.1% despite reporting a "strong" operating performance in the second quarter of the year, though gold production fell 36% year-on-year due to reduced work at Bulyanhulu and to stockpile processing at its Buzwagi mine.Gold production totaled 133,778 ounces for the three months to the end of June, down from 208,533 ounces a year prior. North Mara gold output rose 3% year-on-year, while Buzwagi's fell 44%. At Bulyanhulu, all production of gold is still from tailings retreatment.Cash at the end of June stood at USD120 million, increasing by USD13 million from the figure three months earlier.In mainland Europe early Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.4% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt gained 0.2%.In Germany, industrial production recovered at a faster than expected pace in May, data from Destatis revealed.Industrial output grew 2.6% month-on-month in May, reversing a revised 1.3% drop in April. Output was forecast to grow marginally by 0.3%.In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended higher all round, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending 0.8% higher, the S&P 500 0.9% up, and Nasdaq Composite ending 1.1% higher.The Federal Reserve intends to press ahead with interest rate hikes despite mounting concerns about a possible trade war, according to the minutes of the Fed's June meeting.At that meeting, the Fed raised rates and projected four rate increases in 2018 instead of three previously planned. The central bank, however, maintained its outlook for three rate hikes in 2019."Negative risks to economy from US trade policy have intensified," the minutes showed.Still, "The information reviewed for the June 12-13 meeting indicated that labour market conditions continued to strengthen in recent months, and that real gross domestic product appeared to be rising at a solid rate in the first half of the year."Coming up in the US economic calendar on Friday is a report on employment from the Labor Department at 1330 BST, with employment expected to increase by 195,000 jobs in June and unemployment to remain at 3.8%.The economic events calendar on Friday also has UK Halifax House Price Index data at 0830 BST and US EIA Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report at 1530 BST.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 1.1% early Friday. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed 0.5% higher, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is 0.4% higher.