easyJet Share News (EZJ)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Beleaguered Tesco has bolstered its board Monday, adding the chief executive of food services company Compass Group and a former CEO of furniture and household goods retailer IKEA Group as non-executive directors.

Compass CEO Richard Cousins, who has also been a non-executive director of consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser, and former IKEA CEO and President Mikael Ohlsson will join Tesco's board on November 1.

The appointment of the pair marks the first board additions since Tesco's new Chief Executive Dave Lewis took the helm at the start of last month, and comes amid investigations into the UK's largest supermarket chain after it admitted it had overstated its profit guidance for the first half of its financial year.

The supermarket giant is also addressing criticism that the board, lead by Non-Executive Chairman Sir Richard Broadbent, didn't have enough retailing experience. Broadbent has a civil service, transport and banking background, while other directors come from backgrounds including publishing, telecoms, and manufacturing.

Gold and oil prices have been under pressure, and that is dictating many of the big stock moves in the London equity markets Monday.

The price of Brent oil reached a two year low of USD91.46 per barrel late on Friday, although the price has risen slightly Monday, reaching USD92.91.

The airlines are performing well for a second day, having risen strongly Friday amid some strong trading figures from easyJet and International Consolidated Airlines Group and thanks to the lower oil price. IAG and easyJet are amongst the best FTSE 100 performers again, up 1.6% and 1.2%, respectively. CitiGroup has raised its price target on easyJet and reiterated a Buy recommendation of the stock.

The price of gold has continued to slide following Friday's unexpectedly strong US jobs report. The yellow metal reached a 2014 low of USD1,182.79 per ounce early Monday, causing some weakness in the mining stocks. It has since recovered somewhat, but FTSE 250-listed African Barrick Gold is down 2.0%, and Hochschild Mining is down 3.7%.

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Markets: UK stock indices are trading higher, following on from a positive Asian session amid easing concerns over the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Major European markets are also higher, with the French CAC 40 up 0.2%, and the German DAX up 1.0%. The DAX is seeing particularly strong gains after having missed out on the broad gains on Friday as the market was closed for Germany's Day of Unity.

Ahead of the Wall Street open, US futures are pointing higher, with the DJIA and S&P 500 set to open up 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite up about 0.3. All eyes will be on the non-farm payrolls data.

FTSE 100: up 0.4% at 6,556.83
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 15,269.30
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 740.98
GBP-USD: up at 1.5984
EUR-USD: up at 1.2549
GOLD: up at USD1,194.25 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD92.91 a barrel
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Other Top UK Corporate News
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The Bank of England said it wants banks that expect to be subject to ring-fencing requirements by 2019 to submit a preliminary plan of their anticipated legal and operating structures by the end of 2014. The Prudential Regulation Authority, an arm of the Bank of England, is consulting on three areas of ringfencing policy ahead of new rules that will require banks with more than GBP25 billion of core deposits - broadly those from individuals and small businesses - to ring-fence their core activities from other activities like investment banking from the start of 2019.
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Lloyds Banking Group is set to cut thousands of jobs and close more branches as it shifts towards a "digitisation" strategy and automates its business, The Times reported. Jobs are expected to be cut in areas such as mortgage processing and new account opening, as work currently completed manually is moved to computer systems in order to cut costs and improve customer service, the newspaper said, citing City sources. The strategy is set to be unveiled by the bank as part of a three-year plan included in its third-quarter results announcement on October 28, The Times said.
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Oil company BG Group said it has received a USD350 million payment from the Egyptian government, meaning its domestic receivables balance in the country has fallen to about USD1.2 billion. The Egyptian government has raised funds to help repay debts that it owes to the oil and gas sector in the wake of the disruption and turmoil caused by the so-called Arab Spring, when Egypt's previous rulers were thrown out.
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BT Group's return to the mobile market may be delayed into the next financial year due to technical problems which could undermine its plan to undercut rivals, The Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday. The newspaper said sources have suggested the company is struggling with technology designed to ensure as much voice call and data traffic as possible is carried over Wi-Fi networks rather than via a 4G mobile network. Having this technology working is an essential component of BT's plan to keep the cost of providing its mobile service low in order to undercut traditional mobile operators, the paper said.
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Mining giant BHP Billiton has announced plans to cut unit costs at Western Australia Iron Ore or WAIO by at least 25% in a move which will make it the iron ore producer with the lowest cost in Australia. BHP expects to reduce unit cash costs by 25% to less than USD20 per tonne in the medium term to be achieved in the 2014 financial year.
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Used car trader BCA Marketplace, best known for its webuyanycar.com consumer operation, said it intends to list on the London Stock Exchange's main market, raising gross proceeds of about GBP200 million that it will use to reduce its debt pile. The company's main operation is to match-up wholesale buyers and sellers of used cars. It has over 200 physical sites across Europe, and claims to be two-and-half-time bigger than its nearest competitor by number of vehicles sold. It sold over 900,000 vehicles in 2013, while webuyanycar.com bought more than 120,000.
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BTG strengthened its expectations for its full year, saying it now expects its revenue to be around the top end of its guidance range of GBP330 million to GBP345 million, despite adverse foreign exchange movements, as a result of a strong first half. The specialist healthcare group said it had continued to see good growth in the products it acquired in July 2013, TheraSphere for the treatment of liver cancer and EKOS for blood clots.
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Dragon Oil made a 230 pence per share offer for Petroceltic International. The offer would value the Dublin-based oil and gas explorer at GBP491.56 million and represents a 29% premium on Petroceltic's closing price Friday of 177.92p. Petroceltic said in a statement that Dragon has completed due diligence and has submitted the bid to its board. It said any takeover of the company would be subject to standard Irish takeover rules and to approval by authorities in Algeria in relation to the Algerian assets owned by Petroceltic. Petroceltic said it has told Dragon Oil that it would be willing to recommend a firm offer at the current bid price.
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Cranswick said trading in the first half of the year has been in line with its expectations, with revenue in line with the year-earlier period as growth across most of its product categories offset lower sales of fresh pork. In a trading update, the food and pet products producer said its markets remain competitive and operating margins in the six months to September 30 are expected to have been similar to the previous year as a whole.
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Aer Lingus Group said traffic rose in September, bolstered particularly by growth in its long-haul operations. In a statement, the Irish flag carrier said traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres rose 13.7% in September compared with a year earlier, greater than the 11.5% increase in available seat kilomtres, meaning its load factor - a measure of how full its planes are - rose to 83.3%, from 81.7%.
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AIM Movers
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Boxhill Technologies saw its shares rise by more than two-thirds in early trade, and is still doing well despite the gains being pared when the company said it didn't know a reason for the spike. Iofina is doing well after it said production of crystallized iodine rose 18.6% on the month in September, and its US subsidiary was preliminarily granted a water permit in the state of Montana. Iofina reiterated its year-end production forecast of 325 to 350 metric tonnes of crystallized iodine, having produced 28.0 tonnes in September, compared with 23.6 tonnes in August. Beowulf Mining is also up after the latest assay results for the Kallak iron ore project in Sweden showed high grades and extensive intersections at the site. Petroceltic International is up after Dragon Oil made a 230 pence per share offer for Petroceltic, valuing it at GBP491.6 million. Graphene Nanochem is another gainer after it has won a further USD4.8 million order for its PlatDrill drilling fluid, and had won a contract extension with Royal Dutch Shell's Malaysian unit. London Mining is up after Reuters reported that Indian steelmaker JSW Steel is in talks to that the company.
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Top Economics And General
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Financial services firms in the UK recorded the fastest growth in business volume since 2007 in the three months to September, a survey by the Confederation of British Industry and PricewaterhouseCoopers showed. According to the 100th survey, 60% of the firms said that business volumes had increased while 11% said that business was down. This led to a balance of 49%, which was the highest since the 51% logged in 2007. Firms were also optimistic about the business volume growth in the upcoming quarter as the corresponding index came in at 55%. This was the highest since June 2010.
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Eurozone investor confidence declined for the third straight month to the lowest since May 2013, survey figures from the think-tank Sentix showed. The investor confidence index fell to -13.7 in October from -9.8 in September. The score was forecast to drop moderately to -10.8 in October. The index measuring current situation declined to -20 in October from -16.8 in September. The reading was the lowest since August 2013.
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Germany's factory orders declined more than expected in August, figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed. Factory orders fell 5.7% month-over-month in August following the 4.9% rise in July. This was more than the 2.5% drop expected by economists. Domestic orders slid 2% and foreign orders plunged 8.4% in August.
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The number of activists dwindled at protest sites in Hong Kong on Monday morning, as government employees were able to return to work unobstructed and middle schools reopened. Protestors agreed to allow access to the central government complex in the Admiralty district and avoid confrontation. The government promised to enter into negotiations if protesters lifted at least some of their blockades around government offices.
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The World Bank downgraded its growth estimates for developing East Asia citing moderation in China's economic expansion caused by structural reforms. Developing East Asia is forecast to expand 6.9% this year and the next, the Washington-based lender said in its East Asia Pacific Economic Update, released Monday. In April, the bank projected 7.1% growth each for 2014 and 2015.
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Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff led Sunday's presidential election but will have to face conservative candidate Aecio Neves in a runoff October 26, according to official preliminary results.
With more than 99% of the ballots counted, Rousseff had 41.6% of the votes to 33.6% for Senator Neves, of the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB). Environmental activist Marina Silva, 56, of the Brazilian Socialist Party, was garnered 21.3% of the vote.
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Islamic State militants captured part of a strategic hill overlooking the southern entrance to the besieged Kurdish town of Kobane on Syria's border with Turkey, a monitoring group said Sunday. The jihadists managed to take the southern side of Mishte Nur hill in fierce overnight clashes with the Kurdish People's Protection Units and Syrian rebels, who maintain control of the hill's northern side nearer the town, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which compiles information from a network of local activists across Syria. The Islamic State's reported advance came despite what appeared to be the most intense airstrikes yet on jihadist forces around the town by a US-led coalition that formed to fight the militants.
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Those who executed Alan Henning will be hunted down, Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday after huddling with security chiefs to thrash out a response to the murder of the British aid worker. A video of Henning's beheading by Islamic State militants was posted on the internet Friday. Henning was held by the group for nine months after being captured while travelling on an aid convoy to Syria. A week ago Britain's parliament voted overwhelmingly to participate in airstrikes against the militants. The video of the beheading opened with footage from a news report on the vote.
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Twelve separatist rebels were killed trying to capture the airport in their stronghold of Donetsk, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported citing the National Security Council in Kiev. Ukrainian troops fought off the assaults on the biggest airport in eastern Ukraine, council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said. He added that two government soldiers were killed in the fighting in the past 24 hours. The airport is a strategic prize that has been the subject of fighting for days, despite a ceasefire that took effect between the pro-Russian rebels and the government on September 5.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)

Electra Private Equity - Result Of General Meeting vote on Sherborne proposals
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Tuesday's Key UK Corporate Events

Synety Group - Trading statement
St. Ives - Full Year Results
Ferrexpo - Q3 Production Report
Robert Walters - Interim Management Statement
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)

04:00 Japan BoJ Interest Rate Decision
07:00 Germany Industrial Production
07:45 France Budget
09:30 UK Industrial Production
13:55 US Redbook index
15:00 US IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism
15:00 UK NIESR GDP Estimate
17:20 US Fed Minneapolis's Narayana Kocherlakota speech
19:00 US Fed's William Dudley speech
20:00 US Consumer Credit Change
21:30 US Former Fed's Bernanke speech
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