Johnson Matthey Share News (JMAT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
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COMPANIES
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Capita PLC raised its interim dividend for the half year to end-June and expressed confidence in its full-year performance, despite seeing pretax profit hit by exceptional costs. The outsourcing company proposed an interim dividend of 9.6 pence, up 10% from 8.7 pence in the previous year. Capita posted a pretax profit of GBP152.3 million, down from GBP157.5 million in the previous year, despite seeing revenue rise to GBP2.07 billion from GBP1.82 billion, as it was hit by GBP85.7 million in exceptional expenses, higher cost of sales, and higher administrative expenses.
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Engineering company Renishaw PLC reported an increase in profit for the recent full year, boosted in part by the sale of Declam PLC and a strong performance from its metrology division. Renishaw shares were up 15% at 1,689.00 pence Wednesday morning, leading the FTSE 350. The company, which designs, manufactures and sells advanced precision metrology and inspection equipment for the healthcare sector, posted pretax profit of GBP96.4 million for the year ended June 30, up from GBP82.1 million a year earlier. Profit was boosted by a GBP26.3 million gain on the disposal of Renishaw's 19.4% stake in Delcam. AIM-listed Delcam was sold to US software group Autodesk Inc, in a deal worth GBP172.5 million in 2013.
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Mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd reported a 19% year-over-year increase in iron ore production for the fourth quarter, and a 15% growth from the previous third quarter. Production of metallurgical coal grew 9%. Total iron ore production for the full-year 2014 also increased 20%, delivering its fourteenth consecutive annual production record. Smaller rival Rio Tinto PLC reported on July 15 that its global iron ore production for the second quarter grew 11% from last year.
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Imperial Tobacco PLC said the stabilisation period on the IPO of Compañía de Distribución Integral Logista Holdings, or Logista, has ended. Imperial also said Credit Suisse Securities, the stabilisation agent on the IPO, has fully-exercised its over-allotment option on the deal. The price of the shares on the over-allotment option is the same as the offer price for the IPO of EUR13 per share. The shares are being sold through Altadis, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Imperial. Following the IPO and the full exercise of the over-allotment option, Imperial will hold a stake of approximately 70% in Logista.
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The Sage Group PLC said it is on target to achieve its 6% organic revenue growth goal in 2015, as it saw revenue rise 4.3% in its third quarter. The company said that in the first nine months of the year it had seen revenue rise 4.7%. It expects its performance in the fourth quarter to be stronger than its third. It maintained its guidance for operating profit margins for the year.
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Johnson Matthey PLC said its guidance for the full-year remains unchanged, despite reporting a drop in pretax profit in its first quarter amid the further strengthening of sterling. In an interim management statement released ahead of its annual general meeting, Johnson Matthey said pretax profit declined 10% during the quarter to June 30, coming in at GBP95.0 million, compared to the GBP106.09 million recorded in 2013. Operating profit also fell, down 11% to GBP103.6 million from GBP116.1 million last year. While growth in Emission Control Technologies was offset by the expected softening in Process Technologies and Precious Metal Products, sales, excluding precious metals, during the quarter were flat at GBP749 million, compared to GBP745 million last year, said the company.
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Kazakhmys PLC unveiled an agreement to dispose of certain of its mature mining assets in the Zhezkazgan and Central Regions of Kazakhstan, as it looks to restructure, strengthen its financial position, and focus on production from a small group of large-scale, low-cost open-pit mines. Kazakhmys also said it wants to rename itself as KAZ Minerals PLC following the disposals, which will leave it as the owner of the mining and producing assets in the East Region and the Bozymchak mine in Kyrgyzstan.
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Synergy Health PLC said that it remains committed to achieving its underlying growth expectations for the full year, although it warned that the strengthening of sterling may hit its results. The healthcare services company said it had seen revenues rise to GBP99.1 million in the first quarter to June 29 on a constant currency basis from GBP96.6 million a year before. At actual currency rates, revenues declined 1.1% to GBP95.6 million. Some 60% of the company's revenue is denominated in currencies other than sterling, it said, and as a result it is hurt by the appreciation of sterling. Synergy Health remained positive in its outlook for the 2014/15 financial year, however, citing its progress with new contracts and sentiment in its core service lines and markets.
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Morgan Advanced Materials PLC reported an increase in profit for the first half, despite a drop in revenue following a mixed performance across the business. The company, which supplies carbon and ceramic products to a number of industries including energy, petrochemical, transportation and healthcare posted pretax profit of GBP37.5 million for the period ended June 30, up from GBP35.7 million a year earlier. Revenue, however, fell to GBP448.4 million from GBP486.1 million. Morgan Advanced Materials said its results were impacted by the continued strength of sterling. It said relative to the first half of 2013, the impact of foreign exchange caused a reduction of GBP33.7 million in revenue and GBP5.1 million in earnings before interest, taxation and amortisation.
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TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC said that it is on track to meet its financial year 2015 guidance and medium-term financial targets, as it saw revenue rise in the first quarter to end-June. The telecommunications company said revenues in the quarter rose to GBP434 million from GBP421 million in the previous year, with its on-network revenue - meaning revenue from using its own equipment, as opposed to wholesale arrangements - rising to GBP322 million from GBP306 million. The company said it had completed its GBP819 million refinancing, via a private placing programme and bank debt, ahead of existing facilities maturing in 2015.
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MARKETS
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UK stocks are trading modestly higher as the latest Bank of England Policy meeting sounded a little less hawkish about the UK economy than anticipated.
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FTSE 100: up 0.3% at 6814.82
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 15679.04
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 773.23
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The pound fell a little from its morning highs against the dollar after the Monetary Policy Committee voted 9-0 to keep the UK base rate unchanged and UK mortgage approvals were less than analysts' expectations.
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.7048
EUR-USD: flat at USD1.3465

GOLD: flat at USD1307.75 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD107.35 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Bank of England policymakers unanimously decided to maintain the key interest rate and quantitative easing at the meeting held on July 9 and 10, minutes of the meeting showed. Members of the Monetary Policy Committee assessed that a premature tightening in monetary policy might leave the economy vulnerable to shocks, with the effectiveness of any further stimulus uncertain. Members had no preset timing for the first increase in Bank Rate, which would be driven by the data, the minutes said. At the July meeting, all nine members of MPC voted to keep the bank rate at a record low 0.50% and asset purchase programme at GBP375 billion.
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UK mortgage approvals increased to a 3-month high in June, data showed. According to British Bankers' Association, loans approved for house purchases increased to 43,265 from revised 41,881 in May. Economists had forecast it to fall to 41,375 from May's originally estimated 41,757. Including re-mortgage and other secured borrowing, mortgage approvals totaled 68,121 in June, up from 65,394 a month ago. BBA said mortgage approval volumes recovered slightly in June following the introduction of the new mortgage rules which had a limited impact on application processes as the rules were bedding in.
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US intelligence has found no evidence of direct Russian government involvement in the crash of a Malaysian airliner last week, but Washington blames Moscow for creating conditions that led to the plane being shot down, unnamed officials tell US media. The plane was likely shot down by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, the US says. The plane was likely targeted by accident, an official says. "We're still working to determine whether there was a direct link, whether there were Russians on the ground, whether they trained these separatists," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor, tells CNN in an interview.
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The Netherlands was expecting the first remains of victims in the flight MH17 disaster to arrive Wednesday from Ukraine, where Dutch officials received the plane's flight recorders overnight. Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine had allowed the first bodies of passengers killed in the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane to begin their journeys home, as Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to exert influence amid mounting international pressure. The rebels turned over the flight data and cockpit voice recorders to Malaysian officials in rebel-held Donetsk, five days after the Thursday crash in which all 298 people aboard were killed.
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged both Israelis and Palestinians to stop the fighting that has been raging for the past two weeks in the Gaza Strip, and pleaded with the two sides to return to dialogue with the aim of addressing the underlying causes of the repeated cycles of violence. Ban arrived in Israel from Egypt, where he met with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and thanked him for his leadership role in the current efforts to establish a ceasefire in Gaza. His tour also included stops in Qatar and Kuwait. It will also take him to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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