Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Tuesday.
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COMPANIES
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Lloyds Banking Group said it swung to a third-quarter pretax profit, as strong underlying growth more than offset a new GBP900 million charge to cover the payment protection insurance mis-selling scandal. The bank also detailed new strategy plans, under which it will cut 9,000 jobs and close 150 branches net over the next three years. Lloyds said it made a GBP751 million pretax profit in the three months ended September 30, compared with a GBP440 million pretax loss in the corresponding quarter last year. On an underlying basis, which excludes assets sales, costs associated with the spin-off of TSB Banking Group, and the PPI charge, profit increased to GBP2.16 billion from GBP1.52 billion.
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Standard Chartered reported a 16% drop in third-quarter pretax profit, citing higher losses on loans gone bad and increased expenses. The Asia-focused bank also expects underlying profit in the second half to be lower than the same period last year, partly due to a higher UK bank levy, regulatory and restructuring costs. Standard Chartered said it made a USD1.53 billion pretax profit in the three months ended September 30, compared with a USD1.83 billion pretax profit in the corresponding quarter last year.
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BG Group saw its shares fall after it reported a drop in its underlying earnings in the third quarter, and said its exploration and production guidance remains at the low end of its forecast range. The company's third-quarter E&P production was 569 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day, at the lower end of the 590-630 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day range, reflecting continuing issues in Egypt and the acceleration into 2014 of production sharing contract effects in Kazakhstan. Business Performance operating profit, the company's preferred non-GAAP measure of profit that excludes disposals, certain re-measurements and impairments and other exceptional items, fell 26% to USD1.31 billion as profit from upstream operations fell 36% to USD746 million.
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BP reported a drop in third-quarter earnings from its upstream segment due to lower oil prices, but saw an increase in downstream earnings, as it hit its cash flow targets and said it is on track to hit its 2014 targets. During the quarter ended September 30, BP's upstream segment reported an underlying pretax replacement cost profit of USD3.9 billion, compared with USD4.4 billion in the same period in 2013. This result reflected the negative impact of lower oil prices, partly offset by higher gas prices and increased production from key higher-margin regions, the oil major said in a statement. The downstream segment reported underlying pre-tax replacement cost profit for the quarter of USD1.5 billion, compared with USD700 million a year earlier. The improvement was driven by a stronger refining environment as well as an increased contribution from supply and trading activities, it added.
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Spanish energy group Compañía Española de Petróleos confirmed it was holding talks with Salamander Energy over a possible takeover of the company, a day after shares in the London-listed oil company surged higher after it said it was holding talks with two possible suitors. CEPSA on Tuesday confirmed it was holding talks with Salamander about a possible takeover bid and also said Jynwel Capital also was involved in its bid. It said there was no certainty any offer would be made and said its bid would be in cash.
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Synthomer warned it expects lower profit in the full year and said earnings could be lower still if economic developments in Europe continue to deteriorate. "At current run rates and given the current demand environment in Europe, the board now expects full-year profit before tax to be slightly below current consensus" of pretax profit of GBP87.8 million, the company said. "We are cautious about performance in Europe given recent economic developments, and should this impact demand further than currently anticipated in the fourth quarter, then profit before tax is likely to be around the lower end of the current consensus range," currently GBP81.3 million to GBP90.3 million.
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NMC Health said its revenue rose in the third quarter on the back of strong performances from its Healthcare and Distribution arms and said it would reshuffle its executive team, with its chief operating officer departing, its chief financial officer moving to be deputy chief executive, and its deputy chief financial officer making the step up. Group revenue for the United Arab Emirates-focused healthcare company reached USD161.2 million in the third quarter to the end of September, up from USD136.5 million a year earlier. Chief Operating Officer Binay Shetty is stepping down from his role at the end of the year. Prasanth Manghat, currently chief financial officer, will take on the newly-created role of deputy chief executive from January 1 and will be replaced by Suresh Krishnamoorthy, currently the deputy chief financial officer.
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MARKETS
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UK stocks are holding on to early gains, with mining stocks providing some support while the banking sector weighs on indices for the second consecutive day. As the Federal Reserve begins its two-day policy meeting, investors will look to the US for the main data releases of the day still to come.
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FTSE 100: up 0.4% at 6389.92
FTSE 250: up 0.5% at 15112.05
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.4% at 709.2
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The pound currently trades flat after advancing to a 5-day high of USD1.6121 against the dollar, as traders focus on the two-day meeting by the US Federal Reserve.
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GBP-USD: flat at USD1.6116
EUR-USD: flat at USD1.2694

GOLD: up at USD1228.10 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD85.88 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK SEP HOUSE PRICES DOWN 0.2% ON MONTH: LAND REGISTRY
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Business confidence in Italy improved unexpectedly in October, survey data from the statistical office Istat showed. The business confidence index rose to 96 in October from 95.5 in September. Economists had expected the index to fall to 95. The assessment on order books improved while production expectations and assessment on inventories remained stable.
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France and Italy moved Monday to calm EU concerns over their 2015 budget plans, saying that they would tighten their financial belts further. The EU is currently assessing draft budgets submitted by eurozone countries, under a system meant to spot financial trouble early on. Both Paris and Rome have been warned that their plans would prove problematic under the EU's strict budget discipline rules. Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Monday that his government had decided to "adopt additional measures for 2015 in order to strengthen the fiscal effort already envisaged in Italy's draft budgetary plan." France's finance minister, Michel Sapin, wrote to the commission that Paris plans to cut its structural deficit by a total of at least 0.5 percentage point, thanks to lower-than-expected interest rates and new measures against tax fraud. The savings would amount to around EUR3.6 billion, French media reported.
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Profits of Chinese industrial firms rebounded in September, a report from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Industrial profits rebounded by 0.4% year-over-year in September after the 0.6% drop in August.
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Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said quantitative and qualitative easing has been exerting its intended effects and the Japan economy has been on a path that suggests that the 2% inflation will be achieved as expected. "Inflation expectations have been rising on the whole and this development has been influencing wage and price formation," Kuroda said in statement presented before the Committee on Financial Affairs, House of Councillors.
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Retail sales in Japan jumped 2.3% on year in September, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said - worth JPY11.242 trillion. That was sharply higher than forecasts for an increase of 0.8% following the 1.2% gain in August. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, retail sales climbed 2.7% - beating forecasts for a gain of 0.9% following the 1.9% jump in August.
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Russia said that it will recognize upcoming elections in separatist-held entities in eastern Ukraine, opening another confrontation with the West. "We expect that the elections will take place as agreed and we will surely recognize their results," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on his ministry's website. Lavrov added that the November 2 votes in the self-declared "people's republics" of Luhansk and Donetsk will be "important to legitimize their governments."
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held a first round of coalition talks Monday after early results showed that pro-Western parties had won the country's parliamentary elections. Poroshenko met with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of the western city of Lviv, presidential spokesman Svyatoslav Tseholko said. The president's Poroshenko Bloc party and Yatsenyuk's People's Front party both scored around 21%, according to preliminary figures released after 70% of votes were counted.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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