Johnson Matthey Share News (JMAT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - London stocks moved cautious higher in early trade on Thursday despite falls overnight in Asia on recent elevated worries over the US-China trade spat. FirstGroup was the best performer in the FTSE 250 on its strategy shift and intended sale of its North American coach unit, while Daily Mail & General Trust shares gained on an upbeat outlook for the unit which houses the Daily Mail newspaper.The FTSE 100 was up 19.71 points, or 0.3%, at 7,205.01 early Thursday. The FTSE 250 was up 84.01 points, or 0.4%, at 19,030.12. The AIM All-Share was up 0.2% at 958.82.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.4% at 12,218.93. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.4% at 17,108.92 with the Cboe UK Small Companies flat at 11,814.3.London's leading index was breaking a week-long losing streak - albeit a week abbreviated by Monday's bank holiday - as the index clawed back some recent trade war-drive losses. Major selling was sparked on Wednesday by news China had threatened to restrict rare earths exports to the US, a move which saw London's index of large-caps slip 1.2%."At present, the US completely overestimates its ability to manipulate the global supply chain," Chinese government mouthpiece People's Daily said. "In the future, don't say that we didn't warn you beforehand!" the newspaper ominously warned.Naeem Aslam at ThinkMarkets said the trade war has now become a "bare knuckle fight"."The US needs to have a plan in place in order to fight with this threat, because this is huge. It is going to impact the technology sector. For this particular reason, the US futures and European markets are trading soft today," Aslam said.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.3% and 0.4% respectively.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended down 0.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.4%.In the FTSE 100, Johnson Matthey fell 2.0% after the speciality chemicals firm's annual profit came short of analyst expectations. Johnson Matthey reported 53% growth in pretax profit to GBP488 million in the financial year that ended on March 31 compared to GBP320 million reported the year earlier, as revenue rose 4.6% to GBP10.75 billion from GBP10.27 billion.Profit came in below market expectations, however. According to company-compiled consensus figures for financial 2019, pretax profit was expected to jump 56% to GBP500.7 million. Imperial Brands was up 1.2% after the tobacco major said on Wednesday its US business gained market share in recent months amid a decline in overall industry volumes there.The tobacco firm's US business, ITG Brands, experienced a "14 basis point gain in share over the past 26-week period". Imperial Brands said it is forecasting annual US industry volume declines to remain around 4.5% to 5.0%.FirstGroup was the best performer in the FTSE 250, up 8.5% after the transport operator said it will be pursuing the sale of its Greyhound bus operations in North America.Going forward, North America will be FirstGroup's core market, however centred on First Student and First Transit which together generated 60% of group operating profit in 2019.In order to focus on this market, FirstGroup will be separating two of its divisions, one of which will be its UK Bus operator, First Bus."First Bus has limited synergies with our other operations and, having set the business on the path to increased profitability, we believe now is the right time to pursue structural alternatives," the company explained.The other is North American intercity coach operation Greyhound."Greyhound has limited synergies with our other, predominantly contract-based, North American businesses and we believe that value for shareholders can best be delivered by seeking new owners," said Stagecoach, adding that a formal sale process for the unit has now begun.Turning to its UK rail operations, FirstGroup said it has "concerns with the current balance of risk and reward being offered".Separately, the transport operator said revenue for the financial year to the end of March rose 11% to GBP7.13 billion while its pretax loss narrowed dramatically to GBP97.9 million from GBP326.9 million. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit rose 15% to GBP226.3 million.De La Rue shares tumbled 21% after the security and anti-counterfeiting firm said Martin Sutherland will be leaving as chief executive as the company posted a steep fall in annual profit.Revenue for the year to March rose 14% to GBP564.8 million, but pretax profit dropped to GBP31.5 million from GBP123.0 million. This was as total operating expenses climbed to GBP533.3 million from GBP370.9 million.The company took exceptional items of GBP27.9 million - versus a gain of GBP60.9 million the year before. The recent year's exceptional costs included a GBP18.1 million credit loss provision related to Venezuelan sanctions.Separately, De La Rue said Sutherland will be leaving but will continue to serve as CEO until his successor is in place. "With a clear strategic vision now in place and being executed, now feels like the right time for me to hand over to a new leader, to take things to the next phase," said Sutherland, who has been CEO for almost five years.Daily Mail & General Trust shares were up 9.3% as the publisher reported a sharp fall in interim profit, though saw a better-than-expected result from its Consumer Media unit.Revenue for the half year to March fell 3% to GBP724 million from GBP746 million - though rose 1% on an underlying basis. Pretax profit halved to GBP50 million from GBP113 million. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit slipped 3% to GBP100 million.Consumer Media - the unit which houses the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline - reported a 1% rise in revenue on an underlying basis. MailOnline's underlying revenue growth of 16% offset a 3% decrease in print advertising revenue and a 2% decrease in circulation revenue.The firm said its annual outlook is broadly unchanged, though with Consumer Media expected to now post a low-single digit underlying revenue decline, revised from a mid-single digit decline.Watches of Switzerland said it will be worth just under GBP650 million when it floats on the London Stock Exchange next week.The luxury watch seller said it priced shares at 270p each, offering 57.4 million new shares to raise GBP155 million for the company, plus 24.1 million existing shares to bring the total offer size to GBP220 million.Conditional dealings are due to begin on Thursday, while admission of the company's shares and unconditional dealings are expected to commence on Tuesday next week.