GFS.L Share News (GFS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended mixed on Wednesday, with the FTSE 100 marginally lower amid a rising pound, which appreciated on hopes of a Brexit extension. The FTSE 100 index closed down 0.1%, or 3.66 points at 7,421.91. The FTSE 250 ended up 0.3%, or 51.08 points, at 19,484.84, and the AIM All-Share closed up 0.7%, or 6.81 points, at 932.99.The Cboe UK 100 ended down 0.1% at 12,594.40, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 0.4% at 17,395.97, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.1% at 11,253.40."With sterling climbing against the dollar - a switch around from its earlier performance, the FTSE dipped. There will likely be more movement overnight, and into Thursday morning, as the EU decision on any Brexit delay - and the UK government's response - is revealed," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.On the London Stock Exchange, Tesco ended as the best blue chip performer, up 3.6%, as the supermarket chain reported a strong set of annual results, with profit ahead of analysts' consensus after completing the "vast majority" of its turnaround objectives.For the year ended February 23, Tesco posted pretax profit of GBP1.67 billion, up 28% from GBP1.30 billion the year before. Meanwhile, revenue rose 11% year-on-year to GBP63.91 billion from GBP57.49 billion, slightly lagging market expectations.According to company-compiled analyst consensus, pretax profit was expected to rise 22% to GBP1.58 billion, while revenue was forecast 12% higher year-on-year at GBP64.52 billion.Furthermore, the UK's biggest supermarket chain rewarded shareholders by almost doubling its annual payout. Tesco proposed a final dividend of 4.10 pence per share, taking the total for the year to 5.77p compared with 3.0p a year ago."Tesco beat market expectations with its full-year results today and the benefits of its restructuring programme are flowing through into a big boost for investors in the form of dividend increases," Ian Forrest, investment research analyst at the Share Centre, said. In the FTSE 250, G4S closed up 20% at 221.00p after Canadian security firm Garda World Security Corp confirmed it is considering an offer for its London-listed peer. Garda, which trades as GardaWorld, made the announcement following "market reports", with the Evening Standard reporting Wednesday Garda is planning a bid.GardaWorld is "in the preliminary stage" of considering an approach to G4S, to be made in cash. It provided no further details."Given G4S's management record over many years, it would be welcome to see another management team run the business for the good of investors, government departments issuing contracts and maybe cheered by individuals whose welfare falls under the care of this company," said Helal Miah of the Share Centre. Languishing at the foot of the FTSE 250, Indivior saw GBP553 million slashed off its total market value after federal prosecutors charged the drugmaker with felony fraud and conspiracy for its marketing of opioid products. Indivior's market capitalisation on Tuesday had stood at GBP773 million.The stock closed down 72% at 30.05p and slumped to a record low 20.98p. The grand jury in the Western District of Virginia issued an indictment of 28 felony counts against the company related to fraud, alleging that the pharmaceutical company tricked both healthcare providers and health care benefit programmes such as medicare and medcaid into thinking that its Suboxone Film product was "safer and less susceptible to diversion and abuse than other, similar drugs".The Department of Justice is seeking at least USD3 billion in fines from Indivior, according to the indictment.The indictment states that in or around 2007, Indivior became concerned about generic forms of its tablet being made and began to develop a new buprenorphine-based product. It submitted a new drug application for Suboxone Film in 2008 and is alleged to have begun pushing for the film to be seen as a safer alternative to the pill because the film was sold in sealed packaging.Indivior, in response on Wednesday, said the allegations are based on actions that occurred "almost exclusively" prior to Indivior becoming an independent company.Indivior said it believes the claims are "unsupported by the facts and the law", and it will contest the allegations.The Slough-based firm was spun-off from Reckitt Benckiser in 2014 as Reckitt sharpened its focus on the household goods market.Reckitt Benckiser ended the worst performer in the FTSE 100, down 6.5%, on a negative read-across from Indivior's woes.Reckitt on Wednesday sought to soothe investor fears by clarifying that the indictment by the US Justice Department in relation to Indivior was not against Reckitt or any of its group companies."With a fine of USD3 billion being touted by regulators it is hard to imagine how Reckitt won't get drawn in given that the events happened under Reckitt's watch, and that given today's price action Indivior is no longer in a position to pay any sort of fine, given that its net cash position was a mere GBP500 million at the end of last year, while its main sources of income are now facing competition from cheaper alternatives," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson. Stagecoach closed down 9.3% after the transport company said it has been disqualified from applying from all three current UK rail franchise competitions.The reason, Stagecoach said, is because it submitted non-compliant bids related to pension risks. The three franchises are East Midlands, South Eastern, and West Coast Partnership. It had applied for East Midlands independently, South Eastern alongside planned partner Alstom, and West Coast alongside Virgin Group and French firm SNCF. The pound was quoted at USD1.3095 at the London equities close, up from to USD1.3049 at the close Tuesday, as UK Prime Minister Theresa May arrived in Brussels to ask EU leaders for a second delay to Brexit at an emergency summit.May will meet the leaders of the remaining EU 27 later on Wednesday to press for a further extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process to June 30 to allow for more time to get a deal through Parliament.In the latest developments, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU is likely to agree to a longer Brexit delay than the one May is asking for.However Merkel - who met her UK counterpart in Berlin on Tuesday - suggested the EU "may well" go for a longer delay, although the UK would be allowed to leave "very quickly" if Parliament ratifies a withdrawal deal.The UK is set to depart the bloc on Friday at 2300 BST, unless an extension can be agreed."The EU is likely to grant an extension to the UK's exit from the group, and we will hear the answer later tonight," said CMC's David Madden. Meanwhile, the UK economy expanded for the second straight month, but at a slower pace than in February, figures from the Office For National Statistics showed.Gross domestic product, or GDP, grew 0.2% month-on-month in February, while the economy expanded 0.5% in January. Economists were looking for growth to remain flat in February.In the three months to February, UK gross domestic product grew 0.3% on the preceding three months. This matched the January reading of 0.3%. In Paris the CAC 40 ended up 0.3%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 0.5%. The euro stood at USD1.1245 at the London equities close, lower than USD1.1270 late Tuesday, after the Euopean Central Bank President Mario Draghi painted a pessimistic picture on the state of the eurozone economy. The eurozone was "a picture of weakening growth," said Draghi.Draghi moved to keep all the ECB's options open as the bank sizes up growth prospects for the eurozone, amid concerns that the region's economy has lost momentum."The governing council stands ready to adjust all of its instruments" to help the ECB head off the threat of recession and meet its annual inflation target of just below 2%, Draghi told journalists.The ECB head was speaking after the ECB's 25-member governing council left its benchmark refinancing rate on hold at zero.The Frankfurt-based bank's benchmark refinancing rate of zero means borrowing costs have been on hold for more than three years. It also confirmed plans to leave borrowing costs unchanged at historic lows until the end of the year."Some investors now seem to expect the ECB to cut interest rates. But the impact of a small rate cut would be negligible, so we suspect that it would only be a precursor to more significant policy easing. Given that the aggregate macroeconomic effect of previous TLTROs also seems to have been limited, we suspect that the Bank will ultimately have to resume quantitative easing next year," commented analysts at Capital Economics. Stocks in New York were broadly higher at the London equities close, ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting at 1900 BST. The DJIA was down 0.2%, but the S&P 500 index was up 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.3%.The minutes of the Fed's March meeting may shed additional light on the central bank's decision to indicate that it no longer expects any more interest rates hikes this year.Some analysts described the Federal Reserve's decision to downwardly revise its forecast for interest rates as an effort to keep stock markets afloat amid an expected contraction in first quarter earnings.On the US economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing a spike in energy prices contributed to a slightly bigger than expected increase in consumer prices in the month of March.The Labor Department said its consumer price index climbed by 0.4% in March after edging up by 0.2% in February. Economists had expected the index to rise by 0.3%.Excluding the jump in energy prices and a modest increase in food prices, core consumer prices inched up by 0.1% in February, matching the uptick seen in the previous month. Core prices had been expected to tick up by 0.2%.With the monthly increase, the Labor Department said the annual rate of consumer price growth accelerated to 1.9% in March from 1.5% in February.Conversely, the report said the annual rate of growth in core consumer prices slowed to 2.0% from 2.1%.Andrew Hunter, Senior US Economist at Capital Economics, said the slowdown in core price growth to a 13-month low "underlines that there is little chance of inflation breaking out above the Fed's target any time soon.""We continue to expect that weaker activity growth will convince officials to start cutting interest rates before the end of the year," Hunter added.Brent oil was quoted at USD71.08 a barrel at the London equities close, up from USD70.63 at the close Tuesday.Gold was quoted at USD1,306.00 an ounce at the London equities close, marginally higher than USD1,304.54 late Tuesday.The economic events calendar on Thursday has inflation data from China, Germany, France and Ireland at 0230 BST, 0700 BST, 0745 BST and 1100 BST. In the afternoon there is US producer prices at 1330 BST. The UK corporate calendar on Thursday has half-year results from books and stationery retailer WH Smith, annual results from budget hotel chain easyHotel and first-quarter production results from Mexican gold miner Fresnillo.