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LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares have opened higher in London, as announcements due from the Bank of England and US Federal Reserve give market participants something else to think about Wednesday other than Greece.
Tensions between Greece and the EU and IMF remain high as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday accused his country's creditors of "pillaging" Greece and suggested their motives are political, in a statement to the Efimerida Ton Syntakton newspaper. "The Greek government is negotiating with a plan and has presented nuanced counter-proposals," Tsipras said. "We will patiently wait for the institutions to adhere to realism."
UK supermarkets Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury's lead FTSE 100 fallers at the open, after being initiated by Credit Suisse at Neutral, Underperform and Underperform, respectively.
In the FTSE 250, Berkeley Group Holdings is the top gainer, up 7.4%, after joining UK housebuilding peers in reporting higher profit and revenue for its recently completed financial year.
Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.3% at 6,730.53
FTSE 250: up 0.5% at 17,819.25
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 768.14
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Hang Seng: up 1.0% at 26,820.36
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.2% at 20,219.27
DJIA: closed up 0.6% at 17,904.48
S&P 500: closed up 0.6% at 2,096.29
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GBP: flat at USD1.5644
EUR: up at USD1.1268
GOLD: down at USD1,179.94 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD63.75 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 BST)
09:00 Italy Global Trade Balance
09:30 UK BOE Credit Conditions Survey
09:30 UK ILO Unemployment Rate
09:30 UK Bank of England Minutes
10:00 EU Construction Output
10:00 EU Consumer Price Index
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
19:00 US Fed Interest Rate Decision and Monetary Policy Statement
19:00 US FOMC Economic Projections
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The British Chambers of Commerce expects the annual UK inflation to remain around zero over the next three or four months and weak in the near term, before rising gradually towards to end of the year. The BCC expects inflation to still be slightly below the 2% target by the end of next year. This suggested that the Bank of England would not consider interest rate hike until the mid of 2016 at the earliest.
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Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of JPY215.974 billion in May, the Ministry of Finance said. That beat forecasts for a shortfall of JPY258.8 billion following a revised JPY55.8 billion deficit in April. Exports added 2.4% on year to JPY5.740 trillion - shy of forecasts for 3.0% and down from 8.0% in the previous month. Imports tumbled an annual 8.7% to JPY5.956 trillion versus forecasts for a decline of 7.5% following the 4.2% contraction a month earlier.
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Protesters and police gathered at Hong Kong's government buildings, local media reported, as lawmakers prepared to debate voting reforms that have brought the biggest unrest in years in the Chinese territory. Two hundred officers were stationed inside the Legislative Council complex, South China Morning Post daily reported. Another 1,000 would patrol outside the building, and thousands more would be deployed across the city, the report quoted police as saying.
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The US House of Representatives voted to grant itself more time to find a way to pass legislation that would support President Barack Obama's beleaguered trade agenda. Lawmakers now have until July 30 to vote again on the trade measures, which failed in the House on Friday in a rebuff of Obama by his own Democrats. At issue is the so-called fast track trade authority that would clear the way for completion of trade deals under negotiation with Pacific Rim countries and the EU.
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NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg criticized Russia for its decision to add at least 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year - a move that Moscow has blamed on the military alliance. "This nuclear sabre-rattling of Russia is unjustified, it's destabilizing, and it's dangerous," Stoltenberg said in Brussels.
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Plans to tackle a migration surge that has challenged Europe for months hit a hurdle, as EU interior ministers clashed over plans to redistribute asylum seekers. "There remain diverging opinions," Latvian Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis acknowledged after chairing talks in Luxembourg with his 27 EU counterparts. Latvia currently holds the bloc's presidency. The leaders are due to meet next week at a summit in Brussels.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: GOLDMAN RESUMES IMPERIAL TOBACCO WITH 'CONVICTION BUY'
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TRADERS: GOLDMAN RAISES BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL')
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TRADERS: MORGAN STANLEY RAISES WHITBREAD TO 'OVERWEIGHT' ('EQUAL-WEIGHT')
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CREDIT SUISSE INITIATES SAINSBURY WITH 'UNDERPERFORM' - TARGET 219 PENCE
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CREDIT SUISSE INITIATES TESCO WITH 'UNDERPERFORM' - TARGET 169 PENCE
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CREDIT SUISSE INITIATES MORRISON WITH 'NEUTRAL' - TARGET 176 PENCE
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CREDIT SUISSE INITIATES OCADO WITH 'OUTPERFORM' - TARGET 466 PENCE
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TRADERS: MORGAN STANLEY INITIATES JUST EAT WITH 'EQUAL-WEIGHT' - TARGET 450P
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Old Mutual priced the sale of a further stake in OM Asset Management, the boutique asset manager it spun off in a float on the New York Stock Exchange in the autumn of 2014, at USD17.50 a share. Old Mutual said the underwritten public offering of 13.3 million shares will close on June 22. It had announced the planned share sale on Monday.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Berkeley Group Holdings joined UK housebuilding peers in reporting higher profit and revenue for its last financial year as its average selling prices rose strongly and it booked gains on land and asset sales, and it said the clear UK election result had underpinned its outlook. The company reported a pretax profit of GBP539.7 million for the year to April 30, up from GBP380.0 million a year before, as revenue grew to GBP2.12 billion, from GBP1.62 billion. Berkeley said it sold 3,355 new homes across London and the South of England, down from 3,742 a year before, but the average selling price rose strongly to GBP575,000 from GBP423,000.
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JD Sports Fashion said it has made a strong start in the first 19 weeks of its new financial year, ahead of its annual general meeting. The sports retailer said sales are growing in Europe, but warned that the weak euro will hit its margins in stores outside of the UK. "Whilst we are now trading against challenging comparatives for the remainder of the year, the board remains confident that current earnings expectations for the group for the year ended January 31, 2016 should be met," the company said in a statement.
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Betfair Group reported growth in pretax profit in its recently-ended financial year as a rise in customer numbers led to double-digit sales growth in all three of its divisions. The gaming company reported a pretax profit of GBP101.2 million in the year to April 30 from GBP61.1 million the year before, as revenue rose 21% to GBP476.5 million from GBP393.6 million. Betfair will pay a dividend of 34.0p, a 70% increase on the 20.0p paid the prior year.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Software provider Anite and Keysight Technologies released a joint statement saying the two companies have reached an agreement for Anite to be acquired by a Dutch subsidiary of Keysight. The companies said the directors of Anite and two of its substantial shareholders have recommended the deal be approved by Anite shareholders. The GBP388 million recommended cash offer by Keysight Technologies Netherlands BV is for 126.0 pence per Anite share, representing a 22% premium to the closing price of Anite shares on Tuesday of 103.00p.
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Promethean World confirmed that, following an approach by NetDragon WebSoft Inc., it has been in discussions concerning a potential offer for the company. Promethean noted that NetDragon made a Hong Kong Stock Exchange Announcement on June 9 to the effect that NetDragon is in preliminary negotiations for a potential acquisition of up to USD130 million in the education market. In this context, Promethean confirms that the indicative terms proposed by NetDragon are for a cash offer for Promethean at 40 pence per share. "Discussions between the companies are continuing, and there is no certainty that any offer will be forthcoming, nor as to the terms on which any offer will be made," Promethean said.
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MJ Gleeson said its results for the current financial year will be ahead of expectations after it completed the sale of a 12.5 acre piece of land in Sussex. Previously, the urban housing regenerator said results for the year due to end June 30 would be in line with expectations if the land sale was not completed in time. Although the sale of the site will not be completed until July, MJ Gleeson said the sale will be recognised in the current financial year as there are no other conditions that need to be satisfied.
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Inland Homes said it expects its pretax profit in the current financial year to "significantly" beat analysts' forecasts after it sold 205 residential plots with planning permissions at the Drayton Garden Village development to a "major housebuilder" for GBP19.0 million. The specialist housebuilder and brownfield land developer had been in talks with an institutional investor in the private rented sector about the sale of the plots, but those discussions were suspended when the unnamed housebuilder swooped in with a "significant offer".
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InterQuest Group said it has been named "primary supplier" to the European Banking Authority and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, following a formal tender process. The information technology recruitment firm said the new framework contract to supply interim IT professionals for a period of up to four years has a maximum value of EUR13 million.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group have teamed up to consider a buyout of NCR Corp, according to reports citing people familiar with the matter. The buyout could be valued at more than USD10 billion, including debt. The reports noted that the process, being run by JPMorgan Chase & Co., is in early stages and the company and potential buyers still disagree on price. NCR's bankers have sought at least USD36 per share for the Duluth, Georgia-based maker of automated teller machines, a price the private equity firms have resisted as too high.
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Publishing and design software maker Adobe Systems said after the markets closed that its second quarter profit rose 67% from last year, helped by strong growth in subscription revenue amid robust demand for the company's cloud solutions. The company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, also came in above analysts' expectations. However, the company gave a weak outlook for the current quarter.
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Japanese automaker Toyota expanded a safety recall to include 1.37 million additional Toyota and Lexus cars equipped with defective airbags. The announcement brings the total number of Toyota and Lexus vehicles recalled in the US because of the defect to approximately 2.92 million, the company said in a statement.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs
Futura Medical
Forum Energy
Central Asia Metals
Cyprotex
JD Sports Fashion
International Consolidated Airlines Group
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
