Next Share News (NXT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - London stocks started May on a bright note, with sentiment boosted on Wednesday by strong earnings from Apple overnight and the latest round of US-China trade talks.Helping to lift the FTSE 100 higher was an earnings beat from grocer J Sainsbury and a good first quarter for clothing retailer Next.The FTSE 100 was up 25.29 points, or 0.3%, at 7,443.51 early Wednesday. The FTSE 250 index was up 32.22 points, or 0.2%, at 19,857.03, while the AIM All-Share was up 0.5% at 973.25.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.4% at 12,627.96. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 17,780.05. The Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.2% at 11,683.98.On Wednesday, markets in China, German, Italy, Spain and France are closed for the Labour Day holiday. Japan is closed for Accession Day, South Africa for Workers' Day.The strong open in London comes following upbeat earnings from Apple and a fresh round of US-China trade talks, said Michael van Dulken at Accendo Markets.US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and a group of trade delegates arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a new round of talks aimed at overcoming the final hurdles in ending the ongoing trade war between the US and China. The Financial Times reported US President Donald Trump is willing to waive cyber theft demands in order to reach a trade deal with China.Meanwhile, shares in iPhone maker Apple traded 5% higher in the US after-market after a set of consensus-beating results. Apple said late Tuesday that second-quarter profit dropped to USD11.56 billion or USD2.46 per share from USD13.82 billion or USD2.73 per share last year. Revenue fell 5% to USD58.02 billion from last year's USD61.14 billion. Analysts had a consensus revenues prediction of USD57.37 billion.Apple's revenue from iPhones dropped to USD31.05 billion from USD37.56 billion last year. However, iPhone revenue was above analysts' estimates of USD30.5 billion."Strong earnings from the California-based company is helping the equity markets to start the month of May on a positive note," commented Naeem Aslam at ThinkMarkets. "Nonetheless, the focus for today is going to be the Fed's statement," he continued. "We know that Donald Trump has tried several times to push the Fed hand towards cutting the interest rate." The US Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy decision is due at 1900 BST and followed by a press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell at 1930 BST."As widely expected, we expect the FOMC to stay on hold at the conclusion of the 30 April-1 May meeting," said Bank of America Merrill Lynch, adding that the central bank should deliver a "balance message" on the economy.Before this, US ADP employment is at 1315 BST, a precursor to Friday's closely-watched nonfarm payrolls report. Then, at 1500 BST, is the ISM manufacturing PMI.In the UK, Markit's manufacturing PMI is at 0930 BST.The UK manufacturing PMI reading is expected to fall to 53.0 in April from 55.1 in March, according to consensus figures on FXStreet.In Ireland, manufacturing activity growth slowed to a low not seen since late 2016 in April, driven by new business growth slowing sharply.Data from IHS Markit showed the AIB Ireland manufacturing PMI fell to 52.5 points in April from 53.9 in March, signalling the weakest growth since October 2016 though only just below the 52.6 reported in January.Any figure above 50 represents expansion rather than contraction in the sector.Also already released, shop price increases slowed in April as UK retailers more than doubled the number of products on discount to boost sales.Shop price inflation fell to 0.4% in April from 0.9% in March as the number of both food and non-food products on offer more than doubled compared to both last year and last month, according to the BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index.Elsewhere in the retail space, shares in Sainsbury's were up 4.1%, making the stock the best performer in the FTSE 100, as annual profit came in ahead of market forecasts.Revenue for the year to March 9 rose to GBP29.0 billion from GBP28.46 billion, though pretax profit fell to GBP239 million from GBP409 million. Like-for-like sales slipped 0.2%.The company was hit by GBP396 million in charges in the year, with GBP46 million of this comprising costs related to its aborted Asda takeover. Another GBP81 million was restructuring costs and GBP40 million Argos integration expenses.On an underlying basis, pretax profit rose 7.8% to GBP635 million. This was slightly above market consensus of GBP626 million.Sainsbury's did not comment further on the Asda deal, which was blocked by the UK competition regulator last week.Chief Executive Mike Coup said he is confident in the group's strategy and "clear on what we need to do to continue to evolve the business in a highly competitive market"."We will also continue to strengthen our balance sheet and are making a new commitment to reduce net debt by at least GBP600 million over the next three years," he added.Next shares were up 1.1% after it said first-quarter trading was ahead of expectations due to "unusually warm weather" over Easter.Full price sales in the thirteen weeks to April 27 were up 4.5% year-on-year, which Next said was ahead of its forecast of 3.2% growth."We believe this over performance versus forecast was mainly as a result of unusually warm weather over the Easter holiday period, which was particularly helpful to our Retail stores," the clothing retailer said.However, Next said it does not believe the over-performance seen in the quarter will continue into coming months, and thus left its annual guidance unchanged. Towards the bottom of the large-cap index was housebuilder Persimmon as it reported a slower sales rate. Persimmon shares were down 1.5% in early dealings. Persimmon said it current forward sales position is strong, with revenue, including legal completions take to date in 2019, of GBP2.70 billion. The company's weekly private sales rate per site since the start of the year is down 5%, however. The average private selling price has been firm at GBP237,850 versus GBP236,500 a year ago.Just Eat was the worst large performer, slipping 2.2% after JPMorgan cut the online takeaway platform to Underweight from Overweight. Sirius Minerals was at the bottom of the mid-cap FTSE 250, sinking 7.0% to 16.25 pence, adding to Tuesday's 20% slump. Sirius on Tuesday announced a USD3.8 million funding package to develop its Woodsmith polyhalite mine in Yorkshire, and this included a placing, firm placing, and open offer, worth up to USD400 million, at between 15 pence and 18p a share.The miner on Wednesday said it managed to raise more than originally planned, though shares were offered at a sharp discount.Sirius raised USD425 million, due to high demand, with shares placed at 15p. This is a 32% discount to Sirius' closing price on Monday in London, and the 1.96 billion new shares represent some 28% of its share capital. A further 218.0 million shares were placed in the open offer at the same price.In the afternoon, at 1200 BST, are first-quarter results from pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline.