HSTG.L Share News (HSTG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are set to open lower on Thursday, with dealers becoming even more cautious after US and Asian markets suffered heavy losses overnight.In London, Lloyds Banking announced the departure of Chief Financial Officer George Culmer, as it posted a fall in third-quarter profit. BT Group named Worldpay Co-Chief Executive Philip Jansen to succeed Chief Executive Officer Gavin Patterson, who will depart next year.IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 62.88 points lower at 6,900.10 on Thursday. The FTSE 100 index closed up 0.1%, or 7.77 points at 6,962.98 on Wednesday, pulling back from some earlier gains on Wednesday which saw the blue-chip index trading as high as 7,049.83.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 3.6%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 1.5% and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is 2.1% lower.In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended sharply lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending down 2.4%. The S&P 500 shed 3.1% and the Nasdaq Composite ended 4.4% lower, losing all the gains that were racked up during the year so far, after a string of disappointing US corporate earnings results, including from AT&T and UPS.In the early company news, Lloyds Banking Group reported a drop in third quarter profit but with profit still up for the year-to-date. The bank also said CFO Culmer will retire in 2019.The FTSE 100-listed lender announced that Culmer will retire "during" the third quarter in 2019. He is expected to retire after the bank's first half results.In the three months ended September, Lloyds's pretax profit decreased 6.7% to GBP1.82 billion from GBP1.95 billion the year before.Lloyds posted restructuring costs of GBP284 million, a 59% hike from the GBP148 million paid in the same period a year before.The bank's loans & advances to customers at September 30 were GBP445 billion, a slight increase from GBP442 billion at June 30. Lloyd's banking net interest margin in the quarter was 2.93%, up from 2.90% in the same period last year.Advertising giant WPP said revenue in the third quarter declined slightly to GBP3.76 billion from GBP3.79 billion reported for the same period a year earlier. The result reflects the strengthening of the pound, primarily against the US dollar, the company explained.On a like-for-like basis, revenue rose by 0.2%, while on a constant currency basis it was up 1.2%.However, for the nine months to the end of September, revenue was down 1.6% to GBP11.25 billion. On a constant currency basis, for the nine months revenue was up 2.3% and up 1.1% on a like-for-like basis. "The slowdown primarily reflects a further weakening of the performance of our businesses in North America and in our creative agencies," said WPP Chief Executive Mark Read. BT Group appointed Philip Jansen as chief executive officer. He will join the board in January next year. Following a handover period, Jansen will take over from current CEO Gavin Patterson, who will be leaving at the end of January.Jansen joins from Worldpay, the global payments services group, where he will be stepping down as co-chief executive at the end of the year. He has been chief executive of Worldpay since 2013, leading it through its flotation in 2015, until its combination with Vantiv this year.Hastings Group Holdings said it delivered another period of profitable trading. For the nine months to the end of September, the insurance company posted net revenue growth of 7% to GBP574.1 million. Gross premiums rose by 3% to GBP738.5 million in nine months, while the number of customers also increased by 4% to 2.7 million.Looking forward, Hastings said it expects loss ratio for the full year to come in at the lower end of the target range of 75% to 79%, as claims inflation continues to exceed premium inflation.Vivo Energy said it is on track to deliver strong full-year results after it saw 2% growth in fuel volumes in the third quarter of 2018. The fuel retailer said in the three months to the end of September, it sold a total of 2.32 billion litres, up from 2.28 billion litres sold in the third quarter of 2017. However, gross cash profit declined by 2% in the period to USD167 million, as gross cash unit margin fell to USD72 per 1000 litres from USD75 per 1000 litres a year before. In political news, UK Prime Minister Theresa May is pushing ahead with her Brexit agenda after facing down critics with an "emotional" address to Tory backbenchers.May appeared to steady her position after she delivered a "heartfelt" appeal for Conservative MPs to stand firm as EU withdrawal negotiations enter their frantic final phase.The move came as the government prepared to unveil parliamentary preparations for a no-deal Brexit in less than three weeks' time, according to The Times.A raft of legislation intended to deal with the consequences of the UK exiting the EU without an agreement will be launched in the second week of November, the newspaper reported.Despite May seeming to damp speculation of an imminent bid to oust her with a well-received address to a meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan predicted the PM only had months left in power.In Europe, the European Parliament agreed Wednesday on its negotiating position for the EU's 2019 budget, paving the way for final negotiations with member states.EU lawmakers called for a budget of EUR149 billion in payments. That is slightly more than the figures that member states agreed on, which came to a total of EUR148 billion.In particular, the parliament rejected cuts proposed by member states to growth and job-creation schemes, totalling EUR794 million.Though member states and parliament "share the same priorities", EU countries are "concerned by the increases" proposed by parliament, said Austrian Finance Minister Hartwig Loeger, whose country chairs the EU rotating presidency through December.The parliament's budget proposal includes an additional EUR362 million for Erasmus, an exchange programme for education, training, youth and sport, as well as EUR347 million for an initiative boosting youth employment.In Thursday's economic calendar, there is the Ifo business climate at 0900 BST. In the afternoon, the European Central Bank's latest monetary policy decision is due at 1245 BST and followed up with a press conference with President Mario Draghi at 1330 BST.In the US, there are initial and continuing jobless claims at 1330 BST, while durable goods orders are due at the same time.