easyJet Share News (EZJ)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock in London were lower in early trade Tuesday following a downbeat global economic outlook by the IMF on Monday, highlighting US-China trade tensions and the risk of a no-deal Brexit.In London, mining stocks were falling on BHP's announcement that it suffered a series of operational difficulties in the first half, resulting in USD600 million in impairments.The FTSE 100 index was down 15.82 points, or 0.2%, at 6,954.77 early Tuesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down slightly, 1.64 points, at 18,762.83. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.1% at 915.66.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.4% at 11,775.15. The Cboe 250 was down 0.1% at 16,743.53, and the Cboe Small Companies 0.1% lower at 11,115.13."It's been a weak start for European markets in the wake of yesterday's IMF downgrade of its expectations for global growth this year in its latest update on the health of the global economy. This shouldn't have been a surprise to most investors given the weakness of recent economic data, particularly in Europe. The IMF reserved its steepest cuts for Europe, cutting Germany to 1.3% from 1.9%," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.Sterling was quoted at USD1.2862 early Tuesday, lower than USD1.2899 at the London equities close on Monday.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.4% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.2% early Tuesday.In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.5%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 1.2%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended 0.9% lower.In its World Economic Outlook on Monday, the International Monetary Fund cut its estimate for global growth in 2019, highlighting US-China trade tensions and the risk of a no-deal Brexit in Europe.The report estimated global growth in 2018 at 3.7%, in line with the forecast made in October. However, signs of a slowdown in the second half of 2018 are expected to carry over to coming quarters.Global growth is projected to grow 3.5% in 2019, before picking up slightly to 3.6% in 2020. In October, global growth had been seen at 3.7% in 2019 and 3.7% in 2020.In early trade on the London Stock Exchange, International Consolidated Airlines was down 1.9% after Morgan Stanley cut the British Airways owner to Underweight from Equal-weight. Peer easyJet also was downgraded by Morgan Stanley, to Equal-weight from Overweight. However, the budget airline was up 1.4%, after it reported Tuesday a surge in first-quarter revenue and reaffirmed its profit outlook.easyJet reported a first-quarter revenue increase of 14% on a year before to GBP1.30 billion with passenger revenue up 12% to GBP1.03 billion.The budget airline's passenger numbers in the quarter increased 15% to 21.6 million, which easyJet said was driven by an increase in capacity of 18% to 24.1 million.Passenger numbers and capacity were both "slightly" below easyJet's expectations. The lower numbers were attributed to the drone incided in late December which shut London Gatwick for several days, as well as the late arrival of A321 deliveries from Airbus.Easyjet's load factor in the quarter decreased by 2 percentage points to 89.7%. Total revenue per seat decreased by 4.2%. Blue chip miner BHP Group, down 1.7%, reported a number of operational difficulties during its first half, though it upgraded copper production guidance nonetheless.For the six months to December, BHP's copper output fell 1% year-on-year to 825,000 tonnes. For the second quarter, production was down 3% year-on-year but up 2% quarter-on-quarter to 416,000 tonnes. Copper guidance for the year ending June has been increased to between 1.65 million tonnes and 1.74 million tonnes, from 1.62 million tonnes and 1.71 million tonnes before.BHP said copper production was helped by "record" production at Cerro Colorado and higher volumes at Spence, though expected lower grades at Escondida did hurt volumes. All three are in Chile.The full year impact to the company of unplanned outages at Spence and Olympic Dam, in South Australia, as well as the train derailment, is guided at USD600 million. CMC's Hewson said the BHP update was weighing on its peers as well. Rio Tinto, Evraz, Glencore and Anglo American were down 1.3%, 0.8%, 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively early Tuesday.Just Eat was down 1.4% in early trade. On Monday, the online delivery service said Peter Plumb is stepping down as chief executive officer with immediate effect. The company has promoted Chief Customer Officer Peter Duffy into an interim CEO role while it seeks a permanent replacement.On Tuesday, Just Eat said it completed its purchase of a stake in Flyt from Time Out Group, paying GBP9.6 million. In the midcap index, trading platform IG Group was down 11%, the worst performer, after the company reported an interim pretax profit decrease of 17% to GBP113.0 million from GBP136.2 million a year before. The firm's net trading revenue decreased 6% to GBP251.0 million from GBP268.4 million.IG CEO June Felix said: "IG has experienced significant change and will continue to do so in the future. Change will be driven by regulation, by shifting patterns of wealth, and by the continued development of financial markets around the world."IG reiterated its intention to maintain a 43.2 pence annual dividend.Aggreko was down 4.2% after Peel Hunt cut the temporary power supplier to Reduce from Hold.Merchant bank Close Brothers was down 1.5% after it described its first-half performance as "solid" notwithstanding the "difficult trading conditions" in its sector. Close Brothers said its loan book grew 3.1% in the period to GBP7.5 billion and its Banking division continued to perform well, in line with expectations. Negative market movements decreased Close Brothers' assets under management as at December 31 by 3% to GBP10.0 billion.At the other end of the FTSE 250, Cairn Energy was up 2.2%. The oil and gas explorer and producer said it enters 2019 with balance sheet "strength" and cash flow from North Sea production to fund significant growth opportunities.Cairn estimated its full year production to be between 19,000 to 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Increased from its net production in 2018 of about 17,500.The company said its oil and gas sales revenue in 2018 is expected to be about USD395 million, at an average realised oil price of USD68 per barrel. Still to come in the economic calendar Tuesday, UK average earnings and unemployment rate, both due at 0930 GMT. Germany's ZEW economic sentiment survey is at 1000 GMT, while the eurozone ZEW survey is due out at the same time. The World Economic Forum continues in Davos on Tuesday.