Legal & General Share News (LGEN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares continued to rebound from post-EU referendum losses early Wednesday, with only four FTSE 100 stocks in the red.

One of those was Dixons Carphone, down 0.2%, after the electronics retailer reported lower profit in its recently ended financial year due to non-recurring costs of restructuring its store portfolio.

Meanwhile, Vodafone said it is considering moving its headquarters out of the UK, following the vote to leave the EU. Vodafone employs 13,000 people in Britain, and the warning adds to an announcement by Richard Branson on Tuesday that his Virgin Group had pulled out of a deal that would have created 3,000 new jobs in the UK.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
----------
MARKETS
----------
FTSE 100: up 1.5% at 6,232.52
FTSE 250: up 1.2% at 15,692.47
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 690.05
----------
Hang Seng: up 0.9% at 20,361.86
Nikkei 225: closed up 1.6% at 15,566.83
DJIA: closed up 1.6% at 17,409.72
S&P 500: closed up 1.8% at 2,036.09
----------
GBP: firm at USD1.3335 (USD1.3318)
EUR: firm at USD1.1070 (USD1.1048)

GOLD: up at USD1,321.74 per ounce (USD1,313.83)
OIL (Brent): up at USD48.84 a barrel (USD47.81)

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

EU leaders summit all day

0930 UK mortgage approvals, consumer credit, net lending
1000 EU industrial confidence
1000 EU economic sentiment indicator
1200 US MBA mortgage applications
1300 Germany consumer price index
1330 US personal spending and income
1330 US personal consumption expenditure - price index
1500 US pending home sales
1530 US EIA crude oil stocks
----------
Three suicide bombers killed 36 people in an attack at Istanbul's Ataturk international airport Tuesday, with Islamic State being the primary suspect, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said. The attack took place at approximately 9:30 pm local time by the arrivals terminal, according to officials. Some 147 people were injured, said Justice Minister Bekir Bozag. There were reports of explosions and gunfire during the attack, according to witnesses at the airport. The airport, a major global transit hub, had reopened after being closed for several hours.
----------
European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels on Wednesday without UK Prime Minister David Cameron, in a highly symbolic portent of things to come. After bidding an emotional farewell to EU summitry after his last trip to the Belgian capital as PM on Tuesday evening, Cameron was not invited to join the prime ministers and presidents of the other 27 EU nations as they returned to the table to discuss how they will deal with the fallout from last week's Brexit vote in the UK. A clearly emotional Prime Minister said that there was "sadness and regret" among the 28 leaders around the table at the European Council that the UK was leaving the EU after 43 years, coupled with an acceptance that the decision of voters must be respected.
----------
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will hold talks with European Parliament president Martin Schulz in Brussels on Wednesday as she attempts to keep Scotland in the EU. The First Minister is also expected to meet with Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister and leader of the Liberal group at the European Parliament. It is understood European Council president Donald Tusk has no plans to meet with Sturgeon because he does not consider it to be the right time.
----------
UK house price growth accelerated more than expected in June, data from the Nationwide Building Society showed. House prices climbed 5.1% annually, following a 4.7% rise in May. Economists had forecast prices to grow 4.9%. This was also the fastest growth in three months. "It has become difficult to gauge the underlying pace of demand in recent months, due to the surge in house purchase activity in March ahead of the introduction of Stamp Duty on second homes on 1 April," Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said. It is too early to assess the impact of the referendum vote on the economy, the economist noted.
----------
The head of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage, a leading voice for the successful referendum campaign to pull Britain out of the EU, said he would not give up his seat in the bloc's legislature. "The European Parliament is going to have a say that will be part of the Brexit debate. I lead the biggest British delegation in the European Parliament, I am not going to run away," Farage said on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels on the so-called Brexit.
----------
US President Barack Obama warned against "hysteria" over Britain's vote to leave the EU last week. "I would not overstate it," Obama said in a National Public Radio interview. "There's been a little bit of hysteria post-Brexit vote, as if somehow NATO's gone, the trans-Atlantic alliance is dissolving, and every country is rushing off to its own corner. That's not what's happening." Instead, Obama said the vote should be viewed as "a pause button" on "the project of full European integration." He said the vote could be seen as a reaction to the growth of the EU "that was probably moving faster and without as much consensus as it should have."
----------
A wide-ranging trade deal between Canada and the EU should not require approval from the bloc's national parliaments, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told EU leaders on Tuesday, despite pressure from member states. The deal, reached in October 2013, was at the time described by the EU as a "landmark achievement for the transatlantic economy" and a stepping stone for a free trade agreement with the US. It is the largest such accord ever pursued by Canada. Canada and the EU now hope to sign the deal in October, once it has undergone the necessary approvals on both sides of the Atlantic.
----------
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump argued for scrapping a 12-nation Pacific trade deal, calling it the "greatest danger yet" to US jobs. Trump said he would withdraw the US from the Tran-Pacific Partnership, which was agreed last year but has yet to be ratified by the US Congress, and also railed against the North America Free Trade Agreement between the US, Mexico and Canada that went into effect during Bill Clinton's presidency.
----------
The value of retail sales in Japan were roughly unchanged on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said, coming in at JPY11.543 billion. The headline figure was in line with expectations following the 0.1% decline in April. On a yearly basis, retail sales slid 1.9% versus forecasts for a fall of 1.6% after easing 0.9% in the previous month.
----------
BROKER RATING CHANGES
----------
BARCLAYS CUTS LEGAL & GENERAL TO 'EQUAL WEIGHT' ('OVERWEIGHT') - TARGET 200 (298) PENCE
----------
BARCLAYS CUTS ADMIRAL GROUP TO 'UNDERWEIGHT' ('EQUAL WEIGHT') - TARGET 1,788 (1,755)P
----------
TRADERS: LIBERUM RAISES SHELL TO 'BUY' ('HOLD')
----------
TRADERS: LIBERUM CUTS TULLOW OIL TO 'SELL' ('HOLD')
----------
TRADERS: GOLDMAN RAISES DERWENT LONDON TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL')
----------
TRADERS: GOLDMAN RAISES GREAT PORTLAND TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL')
----------
COMPANIES - FTSE 100
----------
Telecommunications giant Vodafone Group said it is considering moving its headquarters out of the UK, after the UK voters last week elected to leave the EU. The company noted that it gained many benefits through the UK's EU membership, including the bloc's free movement of people and the benefits of a single legal framework throughout Europe. The company said it isn't yet possible to gauge how these positive attributes of EU membership would be affected after the UK leaves the EU, a process that could take two years or more, making it impossible "to draw any firm conclusions regarding the long-term location for the headquarters of the group." Vodafone is based in Newbury, Berkshire, west of London, and employs more than 13,000 people across the UK.
----------
Dixons Carphone reported lower profit in its recently ended financial year due to non-recurring costs of restructuring its store portfolio, declaring it will remain "the leader in the UK market" despite expected volatility arising from the UK Brexit vote. The mobile phones and electronics retailer said pretax profit in the year ended April 30 decreased to GBP263 million from GBP287 million the year before, despite revenue rising to GBP9.74 billion from GBP8.26 billion. Headline pretax profit, which excludes non-recurring items such as acquisitions and merger costs, rose to GBP447 million from GBP381 million, in line with analyst and company expectations. Dixons Carphone will pay a total dividend of 9.75 pence for the year, up 15% from 8.50p the year before.
----------
Distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl said trading in the first half of 2016 has been in line with its expectations as it made two new acquisitions. The company said revenue for the first half of 2016 is set to be up by around 9.0%, driven largely by acquisitions the company has made. Stripping out the acquisition contributions, underlying revenue is seen broadly flat year-on-year.
----------
Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has downgraded its outlook on the UK banking sector and its ratings on 12 banks and building societies following the UK vote to leave the EU. Moody's said it changed its outlook on the UK banking system to Negative from Stable, following on from the referendum outcome and subsequent downgrade by the ratings agency to its outlook for the UK Aa1 government bond rating. Within the changes, Moody's downgraded eight banks and building societies to Negative from Stable. This covers Barclays, HSBC Bank, Santander UK, Coventry Building Society, Leeds Building Society, Nationwide Building Society, Nottingham Building Society and TSB Bank. Moody's also cut Lloyds Banking Group and Principality Building Society to Stable from Positive and changed the outlook on the UK government-guaranteed senior unsecured debt instruments for Lloyds, Barclays, Bradford & Bingley and NRAM (No1) Ltd to Negative from Stable.
----------
COMPANIES - FTSE 250
----------
Stagecoach Group reported a decline in pretax profit due to higher finance charges and weaker margins over the year which offset revenue growth, and it announced the sale of the retail operations of its Megabus Europe coach business. Stagecoach said pretax profit for its financial year to April 30 was GBP104.4 million, down from GBP165.2 million the year before, pushed lower by higher finance charges and more costs incurred from investments in improving the customer experience on bus and rail services. This offset growth in revenue to GBP3.87 billion from GBP3.20 billion, helped by the contribution from the Virgin Trains East Coast rail franchise, which started in March 2015. Stagecoach will pay a final dividend of 7.9 pence per share, up from 7.3p, taking its total dividend up 8.6% to 11.4p from 10.5p.
----------
Cobham said it has poached its new chief financial officer from fellow FTSE 250 defence technology company QinetiQ Group. Cobham said David Mellors will join as chief financial officer, the same position he currently holds at QinetiQ, no later than January 1, 2017. Prior to taking up his position at QinetiQ, Mellors was deputy CFO at Logica, a UK-based IT and management consultancy. Simon Nicholls, who resigned from his role at Cobham in January, will leave the business "at an appropriate point" later in 2016, Cobham said. Nicholls was supposed to join Wolseley as CFO, but that decision was reversed in May after a profit warning and rights issue by Cobham in April.
----------
Retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone noted its strong order book which, in normal conditions, would be sufficient to deliver its targeted 20% increase in sales volumes for the full year, but cautioned uncertainty resulting from last week's UK voted to leave the European Union may impact the conversion of its order book to completions. McCarthy & Stone said its order book of forward sales at June 24 was GBP426.0 million, a 23% rise from the GBP328.0 million recorded at the same time a year earlier.
----------
COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
----------
Nike, the world's largest athletic shoes and apparel maker, said its fourth-quarter profit dropped 2% from a year ago, hurt largely by lower-than-expected revenues and weak margins. Shares of the company slipped over 6% in the after-hours trading. Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike's fourth-quarter profit dropped to USD846 million or USD0.49 per share from USD865 million or USD0.49 per share last year. Revenue for the quarter rose 6% to USD8.24 billion from USD7.78 billion last year.
----------
Honeywell said Darius Adamczyk, 50, president and chief operating officer, will succeed Dave Cote as chief executive officer on March 31, 2017. Cote, who has been chairman and CEO of Honeywell since 2002, will continue as executive chairman until the company's annual shareholders meeting in April 2018. After that, Cote will start a five-year consulting and non-compete agreement with Honeywell.
----------
Toyota Motor is issuing a global recall of 1.43 million vehicles to repair a possible curtain shield airbag inflator defect, the company said. The world's largest carmaker said in an email that subject to the latest recall were the 2008 to 2012 models of the Prius hybrid, Prius plug-in hybrid and Lexus CT 200h vehicles. The recall comprised 743,000 units in Japan, 495,000 in North America, 141,000 in Europe, 9,000 in China and 46,000 elsewhere, Toyota said.
----------
Volkswagen has agreed to pay as much as USD14.7 billion for buybacks, damages and penalties in the US resulting from the carmaker's emissions scandal, a document filed at a San Francisco court by prosecutors showed. The German carmaker said it will buy back or retrofit about 480,000 2-liter diesel vehicles in the US affected by the scandal, and offer consumers cash payments on top for their troubles.
----------
Wednesday's Shareholder Meetings

Home Retail Group
DDD Group
Norcon
Beowulf Mining
Industrial Multi Property Trust
Nature Group
Rare Earth Minerals
Sound Energy
Cogenpower
365 Agile Group
GVC Holdings
Herencia Resources
Air Partner
Crawshaw Group
Independent Oil & Gas
Impellam Group
Reach4entertainment
Roxi Petroleum
Victoria Oil & Gas
Pacific Assets Trust
----------
By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.