Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Sky and Hargreaves Lansdown top and tail the FTSE 100 in a muted open to London equities Wednesday.

Television broadcaster Sky posted a big increase in pretax profit for its first half, boosted by a rise in revenue and exceptional gains from its sale of its stakes in ITV and the National Geographic Channel, in its first results that incorporate its acquisitions of Sky Italia and a majority stake in Sky Deutschland. Shares are up 2.0%.

Wealth management supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown reported a drop in first-half pretax profit despite a rise in assets under administration over the course of the six months, in what it described as a "muted" time for stocks and retail investors. Its shares are down 4.2%.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,864.65
FTSE 250: down 0.2% at 16,541.84
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 693.97
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Hang Seng: closed up 0.5% at 24,679.76
Nikkei 225: closed up 2.0% at 17,678.74
DJIA: closed up 1.8% at 17,666.40
S&P 500: closed up 1.4% at 2,050.03
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GBP-USD: flat at USD1.5169
EUR-USD: down at USD1.1468

GOLD: up at USD1,263.92 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD57.62 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Wednesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in GMT)

08:45 Italy Markit Services PMI
08:50 France Markit Services PMI
08:55 Germany Markit Services PMI
09:00 EU Markit Services and Composite PMI
09:30 UK Markit Services PMI
10:00 EU Retail Sales
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
13:15 US ADP Employment Change
14:45 US Markit Services and Composite PMI
15:00 US ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI
15:00 Canada Ivey Purchasing Managers Index
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
17:45 US FOMC Member Mester speech
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Shop prices in the UK were down 1.3% on year in January, the British Retail Consortium said. That was slower than the 1.7% drop in December and the forecasts for a decline of 1.6%. Food prices decreased 0.5%, marking the biggest decline in eight years.
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The European Central Bank is showing resistance to a key element of the proposed funding plan tabled by the new Greek government, the Financial Times reported, potentially meaning Greece could be left with no source of outside funding when its international bailout expires at the end of this month. Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has proposed to European officials that the country will raise EUR10 billion by issuing short-term Treasury bills as "bridge financing" in order to tide Greece over for the next three months while it works to agree a new bailout from its Eurozone partners. But the ECB is understood to be unwilling to approve the debt sale, resisting any move to raise a EUR15 billion ceiling on t-bill issuance to EUR25 billion, as has been requested by Athens, according to two officials involved in the talks.
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Greece's leftist anti-austerity leader said he wants to avoid a rift with European partners, skirting over the details of any possible debt relief deal that he is trying to negotiate for Athens. "There are already too many rifts in Europe to create new ones," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said after talks in Rome with his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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BERENBERG RESUMES BOOKER GROUP WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 189 PENCE
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Liberum Cuts Shell Price Target To 2,120p From 2,230p, Reiterates Hold
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Sky posted a big increase in pretax profit for its first half, boosted by a rise in revenue and exceptional gains from its sale of its stakes in ITV and the National Geographic Channel, in its first results that incorporate its acquisitions of Sky Italia and a majority stake in Sky Deutschland. Sky posted a pretax profit of GBP1.21 billion for the half year to end-December, compared to GBP507 million a year before, on revenue of GBP4.30 billion compared to GBP3.67 billion. Profit was boosted by a GBP492 million gain from the sale of its 6.4% stake in ITV PLC and a GBP296 million gain from the sale of its stake in the National Geographic Channel. Sky proposed an interim dividend of 12.30 pence, up from 12.00 pence a year before.
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Vodafone Group is set to make its first move into the "multiplay" market of bundled telecoms and internet services in the next few weeks, the Financial Times reported. Vodafone will unveil plans in the next couple of weeks for a push into the UK consumer broadband market in a bid to counter the shift by rivals BT Group and Sky to add mobile to their fixed line services.
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Hargreaves Lansdown reported a drop in first-half pretax profit despite a rise in assets under administration over the course of the six months, in what it described as a "muted" time for stocks and retail investors. In a statement, the investment management product provider said pretax profit declined to GBP101.9 million in the six months ended December 31 from GBP104.1 million in the corresponding period last year. Assets under administration rose to GBP49.1 billion at the end of 2014, from GBP46.9 billion six months earlier and GBP43.4 billion at the same stage last year.
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Standard & Poor's late Tuesday cut its long-term credit ratings on a number of European lenders, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Standard Chartered, because the ratings agency thinks state aid in the event of a crisis is now unlikely due to measures taken by European and domestic authorities. S&P downgraded the long-term credit ratings of Barclays and Lloyds to BBB from A-, while RBS' long-term credit rating was downgraded by two notches to BBB-. HSBC's long-term credit rating was lowered to A from A+, while Standard Chartered's was downgraded to A- from A.
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No progress was made in negotiations between Royal Dutch Shell and union leaders in the US on Tuesday, Reuters reported, as they continued haggling over a new wage contract for US refinery workers who have been on strike since the weekend. The two camps have been at an impasse since the United Steelworkers union called for industrial action on Sunday for the first time since 1980 at nine plants, which represent a combined 10% of US refining capacity, after saying Shell had walked away from the negotiating table when the talks broke down.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Synergy Health said it is trading in line with its expectations for the year on the back of a rise in revenue in the first nine months. The FTSE 250-listed company, which provides outsourced support services to healthcare-related markets, said its revenue for the first nine months of its financial year to December 28 was up 5.7% to GBP303.1 million. It said its revenue was held back in part by sterling strength, with constant currency revenue for the period up 9.6%.
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Chemical manufacturer Victrex said it "has seen a solid start to 2015", reporting a rise in revenue during the first quarter of its financial year, driven by increased sales volumes from its consumer electronics business. In the first quarter to the end of December, Victrex generated GBP59.8 million in revenue, a 14% rise from GBP52.4 million a year earlier. The company said sales volumes of its polymers rose 42% in the quarter to 967 tonnes from 679 tonnes a year earlier. The strong volume comparative in the first quarter largely reflects the company's current consumer electronics business, which did not contribute to the quarter last year, it said.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Ryanair Holdings reported strong growth in passenger numbers in January, and said its planes were more full than a year earlier, confirming a trend it reported on Monday when it reported its third quarter results. Europe's largest low-cost carrier said passenger numbers were up by 1.3 million on the year in January to over 5.98 million, while its load factor rose to 83%, from 71% a year earlier. Passenger numbers in the 12 months to the end of January were 87.8 million, up 8% on the previous 12 months.
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Daily Mail and General Trust reported a rise in underlying revenue for the first quarter, with revenue increasing in its business-to-business arm but falling for its dmg media newspaper business. The company said its revenue for the first quarter to the end of December was GBP476 million, up 1% year-on-year on an underlying basis. Underlying revenue growth in its business-to-business arm, which comprises its Risk Management Solutions, dmg information, and dmg events arms, as well as Euromoney Institutional Investor, was up 4% for the quarter. Revenue for the dmg media newspaper business was down 2% on an underlying basis, with circulation revenue falling 4% on the back of declining volumes. MailOnline digital advertising revenue rose 21% in the quarter, but print advertising revenue fell 10%.
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Self-storage company Lok'nStore Group reported strong trading in the first half of its financial year, with its self-storage revenue rising and document storage business improving. The company said trading in the first half to the end of January "remained brisk". First-half revenue in its core self-storage business was up 16% year-on-year, with its self-storage unit occupancy rate up 5.5% year-on-year at the end of January. Its average price per square foot let for the half was up 6.7% year-on-year.
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Interior furnishings company Walker Greenbank said it expects its pretax profit to come in at the top end of analysts' consensus for the year on the back of a rise in sales. The company said it has performed well since its half-year results were published in October and expects group sales for the full year to January 31 to be up 6.4% to GBP83 million. As a result, it expects adjusted pretax profit for the year to be at the top end of analyst guidance. According to Morningstar, the consensus guidance for the group's pretax profit is GBP7.7 million.
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Anglo Pacific Group said it has bought a royalty interest on coal sales from a major coal mine in Australia for USD65 million in cash and shares, said it will help fund the deal with a share placing, and also proposed an enhanced dividend policy to reflect the deal. In a statement, the resources company said it has agreed with a private party to buy its royalty interest in the Narrabri coal project, a thermal coal and pulverised coal injection mine located in New South Wales, Australia. The royalty entitles the holder to royalty payments equal to 1% of gross revenue on all coal produced from the area covered by the royalty.
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Media company Future said it has made a solid start to 2015, with trading in line with the end of 2014 so far. Chairman Peter Allen is set to tell the company's annual general meeting that trading for the company has made a "solid and encouraging" start to the year.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Diversified media and entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney said its first quarter profit rose 19% from last year, driven mainly by higher attendance at its domestic theme parks and strong sales of merchandise based on the 2013 box-office hit "Frozen". The company's quarterly earnings per share also handily beat analysts' estimate as did its quarterly revenue. Meanwhile, Disney is postponing the opening of its Disneyland Shanghai theme park to the first half of 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier Tuesday. The company had planned to open the park in 2015. The project has been on the works for more than a decade, and was first slated to open in 2008.
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JM Smucker announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Big Heart Pet Brands in cash and stock transaction valued at approximately USD5.8 billion, which includes about USD2.6 billion of net debt. Big Heart Pet Brands, which changed its name from Del Monte Corp last year, is a stand-alone producer, distributor, and marketer of pet food and pet snacks in the US.
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Japanese auto major Toyota Motor reported that its third-quarter net income attributable to the company rose to JPY600.00 billion from the previous year's JPY525.4 billion. Quarterly net revenue grew to JPY7.170 trillion from JPY6.585 trillion last year. Looking ahead for fiscal 2015, the company now expects net income attributable to the company to be JPY2.13 trillion and net revenue JPY27.00 trillion.
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Sony announced its consolidated financial results forecast for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014. Income before income taxes is expected to increase JPY76.4 billion year-on-year to JPY164.7 billion. Net income attributable to stockholders is expected to increase JPY62.7 billion year-on-year to JPY89.0 billion. Sony expects sales and operating revenue to be JPY2.56 trillion, an increase of 6.1% compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Impax Asset Management Group
Future
Grainger
Conygar Investment Trust
Connect Group
Victrex
Daily Mail and General Trust
Asia Resource Minerals
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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