Glanbia Share News (GLB)

LONDON (Alliance News) - A sell-off on Wall Street on Wednesday and in Asia overnight is set to send London stock prices sharply lower at the open Thursday, as Mondi and Hargreaves Lansdown provided positive updates and Irish nutrition firm Glanbia bought diet shake maker SlimFast. IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 123.14 points lower at 7,022.60. The blue chip index closed closed down 1.3%, or 91.85 points at 7,145.74 on Wednesday, which had marked its lowest closing price since April."The sea of red bled across into Asia overnight where tech stocks bore the brunt of the sell off. These moves are purely interest-rate related rather than there being any specific issue with technology itself. This is the market catching up with the mover higher in Treasury yields last week. The moves we are seeing mirror the sell that we saw back in February when a move higher in US Treasury yields spooked investors," said London Capital Group's Jasper Lawler.In early UK corporate news, fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown said it made a solid start to its financial year with growth in clients, net new business and revenue.For the three months ending September 30, assets under administration rose 3% from June 30 to GBP94.1 billion, while net revenue rose 16% to GBP120.8 million from GBP104.1 million in the first quarter last year. The company gained 29,000 net new clients during the three months.The company reported net new business of GBP1.3 billion for the quarter, driven by continued investment in digital marketing, higher client numbers and ongoing wealth consolidation onto its platform."I'm pleased to report a solid start to our financial year for growth in clients, net new business and revenue. The past quarter has seen an uncertain market environment and weak investor sentiment resulting in an industry-wide slowdown in net retail flows. Despite this backdrop, we believe the strength of our business model positions us well for when sentiment improves," said Chief Executive Chris Hill. Paper and packaging firm Mondi said its third-quarter profit jumped after price rises, operational improvements and contributions from takeovers boosted results despite cost pressures.For the three months ended September, underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation grew 30% to EUR466 million from EUR359 million a year prior. Ebitda was also 4.3% higher than the EUR447 million the quarter immediately before.The Johannesburg and London-listed firm explained good sales at its fibre packaging unit helped like-for-like sales volumes rise in the period. Profit performance was helped by higher average selling prices with those of "key paper grades" being "significantly" up on the year before and "moderately" ahead of the quarter prior. Performance also was helped by a "very strong" operational performance, "good" cost containment and the contribution of acquisitions.WH Smith also said it delivered a "good performance across the group" in its recently ended financial year, as it lifted its final dividend 13%.For the year ended August 31, revenue increased 2% to GBP1.26 billion from GBP1.23 billion last year, while pretax profit rose 4% to GBP145 million from GBP140 million. The books and stationary retailer said its Travel unit, which is the largest part of the group in both revenue and profit, delivered a strong performance across with total revenue up 8% compared to last year and trading profit up by 7%.The company proposed a final dividend of 38.1p per share, an increase of 13% on the prior year, resulting in a total dividend per share of 54.1p from 48.2p - a 12% increase from last year."While there is some uncertainty in the economic environment, we are pleased with the start to the new year in both businesses, and will continue to focus on profitable growth, cash generation and new opportunities to profitably invest for the future. We are well positioned for the current year and beyond," said Chief Executive Stephen Clarke. Elsewhere, Irish nutrition company Glanbia said it agreed to acquire weight management and health and wellness brand SlimFast from KSF Holdings and HNS Intermediate Corp for USD350 million. Glanbia said the acquisition is to be financed by current banking facilities and expects it to be accretive to earnings per share from 2019 onwards. "The transaction is in line with our strategic ambition to extend the reach of our Glanbia Performance Nutrition portfolio to related consumer needs," said Siobhan Talbot, managing director.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended down 3.9%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 4.9%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 3.8%.In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended sharply lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 3.2%, S&P 500 down 3.3% and Nasdaq Composite down 4.1%.US President Donald Trump attacked the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates on Wednesday, after US stock markets registered their biggest drop since February.Trump again criticized the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates. "I think the Fed is making a mistake...I think the Fed has gone crazy," Trump told reporters on Wednesday.Earlier this week, Trump said he does not like the pace at which the central bank is raising interest rates.The comments from Trump were after the Federal Reserve raised US interest rates by a quarter point to 2.00% to 2.25% last month, marking the third rate hike this year.The Fed's projections for future rates also pointed to one more increase in rates this year and three rate hikes next year.The pound was higher early Thursday, quoted at USD1.3224 compared to USD1.3193 at the London equities close Wednesday.In Thursday's economic calendar there is Irish inflation data at 1100 BST. Accounts from the European Central Bank's last monetary policy meeting are released at 1230 BST.In the US, initial and continuing jobless claims are due at 1330 BST with inflation data released at the same time.