HZD.L Share News (HZD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The market took the opposite view of two travel-related company updates Wednesday, with caterer Compass Group up 1.3% but tour operator TUI down 1.0%.

Compass reported growth in profit in the first half of its financial year and said it has positive expectations for the full year. TUI reported a wider loss in the first half of its financial year but said trading so far in the summer season is in line with expectations.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: flat at 6,154.25
FTSE 250: flat at 16,729.73
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 725.29
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Hang Seng: down 0.7% at 20,100.39
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.1% at 16,579.01
DJIA: closed up 1.3% at 17,928.35
S&P 500: closed up 1.3% at 2,084.39
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GBP: flat at USD1.4450 (USD1.4457)
EUR: flat at USD1.1391 (USD1.1389)

GOLD: up at USD1,272.75 per ounce (USD1,259.09)
OIL (Brent): firm at USD45.44 a barrel (USD44.99)

(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Wednesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)

0930 UK industrial and manufacturing production
1200 US MBA mortgage applications
1500 UK NIESR GDP estimate
1530 US EIA crude oil stocks
1900 US monthly budget statement
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Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won the Democratic presidential primary in West Virginia on Tuesday, keeping his upstart candidacy alive against frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Speaking to a rally in a gymnasium in Salem, Oregon, where Democrats vote next week, Sanders conceded that his campaign still faces "an uphill climb" to the left-leaning party's nomination. "Let me be as clear as I can be: We are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination," he told a raucous crowd. "And we are going to fight for every last vote in Oregon, Kentucky, California, the Dakotas."
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Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff made a last-minute appeal to the country's Supreme Court to stop a Senate vote on whether to open impeachment proceedings against her, as her supporters took to the streets in nationwide protests. In court filings, Rousseff called the impeachment proceedings an "abuse of power" by the former speaker of the country's Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, who was himself suspended from office by the Supreme Court amid a corruption investigation Friday. A decision from the country's highest court was expected before the Senate vote was scheduled to begin Wednesday morning.
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Germany's manufacturing turnover decreased for the second straight month in March, figures from Destatis showed. Manufacturing turnover fell a seasonally and working-day-adjusted 1.1% monthly in March, faster than the 0.2% drop in February, which was revised from a 0.5% decline reported earlier. Domestic demand decreased 1.3% over the month and foreign sales went down by 0.8%.
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Japan's leading index decreased by less than expected in March to the lowest level in forty months, preliminary data from the Cabinet Office showed. The leading index that reflects the future economic activity, fell to 98.4 in March from 98.9 in February. Economists had expected the index to drop to 96.4.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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Investec Upgrades Dairy Crest To Buy From Hold; Cuts Price Target To 625p From 636p
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N+1 Cuts Horizon Discovery Group To Hold From Buy, Target To 194p From 196p
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Experian, the data and analytics company known for providing credit scores to would-be borrowers, increased its annual dividend, reported higher pretax profit at actual exchange rates, and said it expects to make share repurchases amounting to USD400 million in its new financial year.
Pretax profit rose to USD1.03 billion in the financial year ended March 31, from USD1.01 billion a year earlier, on revenue from continuing activities of USD4.47 billion, with both total and organic revenue at constant exchange rates up 5%. At actual exchange rates, total revenue from continuing activities fell by 4% due to foreign exchange headwinds during the period. Experian increased its dividend for the year as a whole to 40.00 US cents, from 39.25 cents a year earlier.
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TUI reported a wider loss in the first half of its financial year but said trading so far in the summer season is in line with expectations. The travel company said its group loss in the six months ended March 31 widened to EUR394.9 million from EUR218.7 million, as revenue grew slightly to EUR6.79 billion from EUR6.61 billion. TUI said results were hit by negative movements in foreign exchange rates. TUI said summer 2016 trading remains in line with expectations with source market booked revenue up 2%, a strong performance by Western Mediterranean and long-haul hotels, and continued growth in cruises.
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Compass Group reported growth in profit in the first half of its financial year and said it has positive expectations for the full year. The catering and support services business said pretax profit in the six months ended March 31 grew to GBP666 million from GBP621 million in the same period the year before, as revenue rose to GBP9.54 billion from GBP8.94 billion. Compass Group will pay an interim dividend of 10.6 pence, which is up 8.2% year-on-year.
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Barratt Developments said its market conditions have remained strong in the first few months of 2016, putting it on track to deliver the expected improvement in performance for its full financial year. The housebuilder said that in the five months to May 8 consumer demand has been boosted by increased competition in the mortgage market, which led to good availability of attractive mortgage finance for home buyers. Barratt Developments added that during the period it achieved a sales rate of 0.75 net private reservations per active outlet per week, up from 0.74 for the same period a year earlier.
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Drinks giant Diageo said it has adjusted its executive committee after Nick Blaquez, the company's president of Africa and Asia Pacific, resigned. Blaquez will not be replaced. John Kennedy, who is the current president of Diageo's operations in Europe, Russia and Turkey, will expand his responsibilities alongside Diageo's current president of Latin America and the Caribbean, Alberto Gavazzi, to fill the gap that will be formed when Blaquez leaves in June.
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Mediclinic International said Jurgens Myburgh will become the company's new chief financial officer from the start of August, as he prepares to move from fellow London-listed Datatec. Myburgh will take up his new role at Mediclinic on the first day of August, replacing current CFO Craig Tingle, who is retiring on June 15. Datatec said Myburgh will be replaced by Ivan Dittrich, who held the role of CFO at Datatec between 2008 and 2012, but left to take up the same role at Vodacom Group.
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Barclays saw its credit ratings affirmed by Moody's Investors Service late Tuesday, as the ratings agency said several "sound credit factors" helped to mitigate weak profitability and high earnings volatility caused by the bank's restructuring and run-down of its non-core unit of unwanted assets, exposure to litigation, and the high proportion of revenue still generated by its investment bank. Moody's reaffirmed several ratings on Barclays, giving the parent company a long-term issuer rating of Baa3 with a stable outlook.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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National Express Group said it made a strong start to 2016, with total revenue up 11% in the period on a constant currency basis, including the benefit from acquisitions and the start of German rail operations in December. After adjusting for the new operations, revenue was up 4% on an underlying basis, the public transport company said in a statement covering the period from January 1 to April 30. All divisions achieved an increase in revenue, National Express said, driven by underlying passenger growth of 3%. The company said it remains on target to deliver its profit expectation and free cash flow and leverage targets for the year.
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OneSavings Bank said it is confident in the outlook for 2016, as the specialist lender reported that net loans and advances grew by GBP460 million during the first quarter. The increase in loans and advances was driven by originating loans and accelerating acquisitions of first and second charge residential mortgage portfolios totalling GBP131 million. Despite the introduction of the UK government's bank tax surcharge, return on equity was "strong" in the first quarter, putting OneSavings on track to deliver a return "comfortably ahead" of its financial target.
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John Wood Group said its earnings in 2016 are expected to be around 20% lower than 2015 as the conditions within the oil and gas market remains challenging, but said it intends to significantly increase its dividend this year. The company, which provides a breadth of services to the oil and gas industry, said it expects earnings before interest, tax and amortisation to be around 20% lower in 2016 than what was generated in 2015, which is in line with current analyst expectations, it said.
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William Hill said net revenue was down in the 17 weeks to April 26 year-on-year, but said trading remains in line with its previous full-year operating profit guidance. The betting company said group net revenue was down by 3% in the 17-week period, as gross win margins benefited from English Premier League football results but were harmed by unfavourable European football results and a "disappointing" Cheltenham festival. William Hill said trading for the full year remains in line with its previous operating profit guidance of GBP260 million to GBP280 million, subject to normalised gross win margins.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Media and entertainment giant The Walt Disney Co reported an increase in profit for the second quarter, driven by a strong performance of animation movie "Zootopia" and the continued contribution of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Nevertheless, both earnings and revenues of Disney fell short of Wall Street estimates, sending its shares down by 6% in the US extended trading session. Burbank, California-based Disney's second-quarter profit rose to USD2.14 billion or USD1.30 per share from USD2.11 billion or USD1.23 per share last year. Revenue for the quarter grew 4.1% to USD12.97 billion from USD12.46 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of USD13.19 billion.
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Facebook said its guidelines for deciding what stories are cited as trending do not allow "the prioritization" of one viewpoint over another. Facebook was responding to an accusation that its Trending Topics section routinely suppresses news stories that would be of interest to conservative readers. The accusation initially was made by the conservative news portal Breitbart News last week and was repeated on Monday at the website Gizmodo, which quoted a former journalist who worked on Facebook's Trending Topics project.
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Wal-Mart Stores has filed a lawsuit against Visa, saying that the payments network service provider has forced the retailer to verify transactions with signatures rather than the chip-and-PIN protocol. Wal-Mart says that Visa does not allow it to complete a transaction using PINS, instead has made it compulsory for the retailer to ask customers to use a signature when they use chip-based debit cards. Wal-Mart has to pay more to Visa for signature transactions than it does for those that use a PIN.
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Amazon announced a new service to provide an outlet for people who create video content, a move that adds another competitor to classic television and other video streaming operations such as YouTube and Google's video platform. The new service will offer content creators from around the world a way to make their videos available to Amazon customers as part of its Prime Video service, Amazon said in a news release.
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Allianz Group reported that its net income attributable to shareholders for the first-quarter of 2016 rose by 20.5% to EUR2.2 billion, driven in part by non-operating realized gains. Basic earnings per share rose 20.3% to EUR4.82. In the Property and Casualty insurance segment, operating profit showed a substantial improvement compared to the previous year, largely due to lower claims stemming from natural catastrophes.
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Mail and logistics group Deutsche Post DHL Group reported that its consolidated net profit for first quarter of 2016 increased by 29% to EUR639 million from EUR495 million a year earlier, mainly due to increase in operating profitability and lower tax expenses. However, quarterly revenue decreased 6.1% to EUR13.9 billion euros from EUR14.8 billion in the prior-year period. Adjusted revenue rose 1.4% from a year earlier. The decrease in revenue reflects negative currency effects as well as the effect of lower fuel surcharges due to the drop in oil prices. Another cause of the decline was a change in revenue recognition.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

John Wood Group
William Hill
Centamin
Premier Oil
Rentokil Initial
Cape
Melrose Industries
Indivior
Wireless Group
TT Electronics
Centaur Media
Gulf Marine Services
Phoenix Group Holdings
Tritax Big Box REIT
Savills
Onesavings Bank
JPMorgan American Investment Trust
Afarak Group
Dunedin Enterprise Investment Trust
Novae Group
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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