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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened higher on Thursday as the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium gets underway, while CRH and Harbour Energy rose after increasing shareholder returns.
The FTSE 100 was up 51.15 points, or 0.7%, at 7,522.66. The FTSE 250 index was up 68.07 points, or 0.4%, at 19,373.57. The AIM All-Share index was up 2.79 points, or 0.3%, at 901.41.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.6% at 750.76. The Cboe 250 was up 0.4% at 16,686.06. The Cboe Small Companies was flat at 14,060.37.
In Paris, the CAC 40 stock index was up 0.8%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt climbed 0.9% in early trade.
In the FTSE 100, CRH was the best performer, up 5.0%, after the Irish building materials firm raised its dividend after robust half-year results.
For the six months to June 30, revenue was USD15.0 billion, up 14% from USD13.2 billion last year and pretax profit rose 29% to USD1.2 billion from USD929 million. First-half earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was USD2.2 billion, up 22% from USD1.8 billion the year before.
The Dublin-based company declared a 24.0 US cents interim dividend, up 4.3% on 23.0 US cents in the prior year.
Looking ahead, CRH expects annual Ebitda to be USD5.5 billion, up 10% from USD5.0 billion in 2021, in a "challenging cost environment".
CRH also said its acquisition pipeline remains strong and its "significant" balance sheet capacity provides flexibility to capitalise on opportunities to deliver further value for shareholders.
At the other end of the large-caps, packaging firm Mondi was down 1.4% after the stock went ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest payout.
Aveva Group was down 1.0% after Investec downgraded the industrial software provider to 'hold' from 'buy'.
On Wednesday, Aveva said it had yet to receive an approach from Schneider Electric, after the Paris-based energy management and automation firm announced it is considering taking full ownership of Aveva.
Schneider currently owns roughly 59% of the Cambridge-based industrial software firm. The stock closed up 27% in London on Thursday.
In the FTSE 250, Harbour Energy was the standout performer, up 9.0%, after the North Sea-focused oil and gas firm upped its share buyback programme alongside its interim results.
For the six months to June 30, revenue and other income was USD2.67 billion, surging from USD1.50 billion last year and pretax profit was USD1.49 billion, multiplied from USD120.2 million. Crude oil sales amounted to USD1.54 billion, up from USD897 million last year, with a post-hedge realised price of USD82 per barrel of oil equivalent, up from USD58 the year prior.
Turning to returns, Harbour had initiated a USD200 million share buyback in June and on Thursday increased this to USD300 million.
"Excellent interim results from Harbour beat on all metrics, with financials pushing net debt lower than expectations and operations "narrowing" production guidance to the upper end of the range. Most important for stock valuation, however, is a new, increased, share buyback. It won't be the last, in our view," said Jefferies analyst Mark Wilson.
At the other end of the mid-caps, Grafton Group was the worst performer, down 5.5%. The building products supplier reported a drop in interim pretax profit.
For the six months to June 30, revenue was GBP1.15 billion, up 12% from GBP1.03 billion last year but pretax profit was GBP132.4 million, down 7.3% from GBP142.9 million. Grafton raised its interim dividend 8.8% to 9.25p from 8.50p last year.
Looking ahead, Grafton expects full-year adjusted profit expected to be in line with analyst consensus.
Andy Murphy, director at Edison Group, commented: "This set of results from Grafton Group reflects wider concerns of a potential slowdown within the building merchant sector.
"In the UK particularly, as the cost-of-living crisis deepens with energy bills set to rise in the autumn, we can expect households to reduce discretionary spending on improvements and housing transactions may slow."
New York ended higher on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.2%, the S&P 500 up 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.4%.
In Asia on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo closed up 0.6%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney ended up 0.7%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 2.1%.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing delayed opening of the market on Thursday, due to a typhoon which has caused disruption in the city. Typhoon Ma-on – which shares a name with a mountain in Hong Kong and translates as 'saddle' – was packing wind speeds of up to 110 kilometres.
The Hong Kong market was holding a shortened session that started at 1pm local time, 0500 GMT.
The pound was quoted at USD1.1854 early Thursday, up from USD1.1813 at the London equities close Wednesday.
The euro was priced at USD1.0017, back above parity with the dollar and up from USD0.9981 late Wednesday. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY136.56 in London, lower against JPY136.80.
Brent oil was quoted at USD101.55 a barrel Thursday morning, up from USD100.77 late Wednesday. Gold stood at USD1,761.88 an ounce, higher against USD1,752.55.
In the economic calendar, there is a US GDP reading at 1330 BST, before the long-awaited Jackson Hole symposium kicks off.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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