Pets at home Share News (PETS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Policymakers of the Bank of England unanimously decided to leave the key rate unchanged at 0.50% for the first time in six months, the minutes of the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting showed Wednesday, prompting analysts to push back their expectations for the first rate hike.

MPC members Ian McCafferty and Martin Weale had sought a quarter point rate hike at the previous five consecutive meetings, but have now fallen in line with their peers, although the minutes said their decision was finely balanced.

"What seems to be a greater reluctance by the MPC to consider raising rates has encouraged us to push back our expectation of the timing of the first hike to November this year from August. However we remain hesitant to believe the yield curve, which is not pricing in any tightening in policy until August 2016," wrote Investec Analyst Philip Shaw.

The news hit the pound, which fell against major currency pairs.

"With low inflation and softening labour market conditions we find ourselves in the uncomfortable position of being in line with consensus about the path of interest rates in 2015. We suspect however that the potential scale of fiscal tightening in 2016 will delay the need for rates to increase for longer than currently discounted by markets, and so remain concerned over the value and direction of sterling in coming months," said Shore Capital Analyst Gerard Lane.

Publisher Pearson is the best-performing stock in the FTSE 100 after it said it expects to post 2014 adjusted earnings per share at the upper end of its guidance, due to a lower-than-expected tax rate and strong performances from its North American higher education business and Penguin Random House despite challenging market conditions.

Pearon expects to post an adjusted earnings per share of 66 pence, down from 70.1 pence in 2013, but towards the top end of its previously guided range of between 62 to 67 pence. It expects to post an adjusted operating profit of GBP720 million, down from GBP736 million a year before.

The Financial Times owner is preliminarily guiding that its adjusted earnings per share, which excludes gains or losses from the sale of assets as well as acquisition costs and related charges, will rise to between 75 pence to 80 pence in 2015.

SABMiller shares are also higher, after the brewing giant said its soft drink volumes rose 4% in the three months to end-December and revenue per hectolitre rose everywhere as it sold more of its premium drinks. That news offset a 1% drop in lager volumes as it was hit by continued weakness in China and lower US shipments.

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Markets: London stock indices are in positive territory, building on four days of gains as minutes from the Bank of England's latest policy meeting showed a unanimous decision to keep rates on hold and UK unemployment fell by more than expected. The pound fell sharply against the dollar in the wake of the BOE minutes.

US stocks are set for a lower open, with stock futures indicating the DJIA and S&P 500 will open down 0.4% and the Nasdaq 100 down 0.3%.

FTSE 100: up 0.6% at 6,661.97
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 16,170.61
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.3% at 696.78
GBP-USD: down at 1.5106
EUR-USD: up at USD1.1572
GOLD: up at USD1,299.69 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD48.44 a barrel
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Top Corporate News
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Mining giant BHP Billiton said iron ore and petroleum production declined in its second quarter from its first, whilst it saw growth in its copper and coal production as it reiterated its production guidance for 2015. The company also warned that it will be booking impairment charges in the range of about USD200 million to USD250 million in the current financial year as a result of the divestment of conventional oil assets in north Louisiana and unconventional gas assets in the Pecos field in the Permian Basin in Texas. It will also book an exceptional item for a USD809 million for an Australian income tax charge.
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BP argued in a New Orleans courtroom that it should not have to pay huge government fines because it worked hard to clean up after one of the worst oil spills the US had ever seen, according to media reports. BP faces up to USD13.7 billion in government fines under the US Clean Water Act over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. US District Judge Carl Barbier opened the penalty phase of the trial of BP, which discharged 3.19 million barrels of oil into the Gulf waters, in a federal courtroom.
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Electronics retailer Dixons Carphone said trading over the key Christmas trading period was like a "roller-coaster", but said market share gains and good sales growth over the festive season have left it confident of delivering a full-year profit ahead of market expectations. The group said UK and Ireland like-for-like sales were up 8% over the nine weeks to January 3 from the year before. Overall group like-for-like sales were up 7%, which the electronics retailer said was driven by further market shares gains across electrical and mobiles in the UK and Ireland, Nordics and Greece.
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Sports Direct International announced that founder Mike Ashley sold GBP110.9 million worth of shares in the sports retailer, roughly 2.6% of the entire share capital of the company. Ashley, which is embroiled in a battle for control of Scottish football club Rangers International Football Club, sold 15.4 million Sports Direct shares for 720 pence each on Tuesday, reducing his shareholding in the retailer to just over 55.1%. The shares were sold via his MASH Holdings Ltd investment vehicle, which is wholly owned by Ashley. Sports Direct did not state the reason for the sale of shares.
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UK gas and electricity regulator Ofgem said it is launching an investigation into whether SSE put its competitors at a disadvantage in the electricity connections market, as it announced reforms to try to increase competition within the sector. The focus of Ofgem's report on the electricity connection sector was on new housing developments and those not yet connected to the grid, who can choose from whom they get their electricity connection, whether it be from large companies or independent providers.
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FirstGroup saw its shares rise after it said overall trading is meeting its expectations, with weakness in its US Greyhound bus operations offset by growth in UK Rail and US First Transit, and its plan to turn around several of its units is continuing to make progress. The rail and bus operator said it has experienced robust volume and revenue growth in its UK rail operations and the unit's financial performance is towards the top end of its expectations, while its UK bus business has reported continued volume growth and is making progress with cost savings.
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Discount retail chain Poundland Group said sales rose by around 10% in the third quarter of its financial year, driven by both existing stores and new store openings, while it also said it saw a "record" Christmas trading period. However, its shares fell as it said sales from its new stores were lower than the year before, due to delays in openings. The discount retailer said total revenue, excluding its five store trials in Spain, increased by 9.8% to GBP328.4 million in the 13 weeks to December 28. If exchange rates had stayed the same, it said sales in the period would have been up marginally more, at 10.2%.
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Pets at Home Group said it remains on track to meet its expectations for the full year on the back of another strong trading update. The FTSE 250-listed retailer said revenue in the 12 weeks to January 1 grew 7.8% to GBP182.2 million, buoyed by merchandise revenue growth of 6.5% to GBP168.2 million, with growth in its food segment continuing to outpace accessories, and services revenue growth of 26% to GBP14 million. It said its gross margin improvement remains in line with its guidance for the year and it is still trading in line with its full year expectations.
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Diploma shares were down after the company reported its revenue growth was held back by the strength of sterling again in the first quarter of its financial year. The FTSE 250-listed technical products and services company, which makes seals and controls, along with instrumentation and services for the life sciences market, said group revenue for the first quarter to the end of December rose 4% year-on-year, in line with its expectations and on track with its guidance for underlying growth. On a constant currency basis, revenue for the group rose 14% year-on-year.
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Bikes-to-car parts retailer Halfords Group said growth in its third quarter was driven by sales of car maintenance products and bikes, especially children's bikes bought as Christmas presents. The retail chain said like-for-like sales, which are sales from stores open more than a year, were up 6.7% in its 15-week third quarter to January 9, on the back of retail sales growth of 6.8% and an improved sales growth performance from its Autocentres, up 5.9%. Total revenue for the group in the quarter was up 6.5%, as was growth from its retail and autocentres divisions.
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Pub chain JD Wetherspoon said sales growth has slowed in recent weeks, while its operating margin for the first half of the year will be slightly lower than the year before, due to increases in staff pay and supplier costs. JD Wetherspoon said like-for-like sales for the first 12-weeks of its second quarter to January 18 were up 2.8%, while total sales grew by 6.8%. However, the group said like-for-like sales slowed to around 2% in December and and slowed even further in the past two weeks.
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Domino's Pizza Group said it has started looking for a new chief financial officer after Sean Wilkins resigned and stepped down with immediate effect, as it said that trading in the final quarter of its last financial year continued to be positive and pretax profit will be in line with, or even marginally ahead of, consensus forecasts.
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WH Smith reported a fall in group and like-for-like sales in the 20 weeks to January 17, though it said it is performing in line with its expectations. Total group sales for the 20 weeks fell 1%, with like-for-like sales declining 2%, with growth in travel business sales more than offset by falls in its high street stores.
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AIM Movers
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ScotGold Resources shares have risen by more than half after the resource at the Cononish gold project in Scotland was significantly upgraded and it said it is preparing a mine development plan for the project whilst evaluating options for financing. Distil shares are up by a quarter after it said its Blackwoods Small Batch Gin has received full approval from the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for sale in the US, and it has signed a new distribution deal with The Winebow Group. Blur Group is doing well after it said it has now started work on a USD3 million enterprise project with a "leading", unnamed, fast-moving consumer goods company. The two-year project is the largest so far undertaken by an enterprise customer using Blur's platform, the company said, without giving any financial details about the deal. InternetQ is up after it expressed confidence in delivering strong revenue and earnings growth in the years ahead, as its revenue rose nearly 27% in 2014 and its adjusted pretax profit rose 61%. Edenville Energy is another gainer after it said the most recent results for the Mkomolo and Muze prospects in Tanzania confirmed the presence of high quality, near-surface coal across the Rukwa Coal Project. Gowin New Energy Group shares have fallen by more than a third after it warned investors to expect a big writedown when it reports full-year results for 2014, blaming difficulties in collecting money owed to the company by its debtors. Gowin New Energy also said its working capital position has been "severely constrained" by the continued delays with debtor recoverability, and it's having to look for alternatives to Chinese banks for new funding because the Chinese institutions have become more risk-adverse in their lending. Weatherly International is down after it said production fell quarter-on-quarter at the end of 2014 as costs rose, prompting the company to review its operations as they are currently "unsustainable". TXO is also down after it announced a range of financing deals and amendments that will lead to the issue of new shares. Intercede Group is down after it said it will report a loss for current financial year, after it warned that revenue is now set to be below its hopes due to a number of order delays. Amara Mining is another faller after it raised GBP14.6 million in a discounted share placing, a higher amount than it said it would raise on Tuesday. Amara said it has conditionally placed 91.3 million shares at 16 pence per share to raise GBP14.6 million, an increase from the GBP13.2 million the company said it would seek to raise.
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Other Top Economics And General
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The UK unemployment rate fell more than expected in the September to November period, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. The jobless rate fell to 5.8% during the September to November period from 6% in the June to August period. Economists had forecast a rate of 5.9%. During September to November, there were 1.914 million unemployed people compared with the 1.972 million people in the June to August period. In the same period of the previous year, there were 2.332 million unemployed people.
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The Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged and lowered its near-term inflation forecast as falling oil prices hamper efforts to lift inflation. At the monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, the policy board of the bank decided by an 8-1 vote to maintain its target of raising the monetary base at an annual pace of about JPY80 trillion. Citing lower crude oil prices, the BoJ downgraded its core inflation estimate for fiscal 2015 to 1% from 1.7%. But the central bank lifted the forecast for fiscal 2016 to 2.2% from 2.1%.
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Yemeni rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, whose fighters have surrounded President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi's personal residence and overrun parts of the presidential palace, warned Hadi to abandon a proposed division of the country into six federal regions. Al-Houthi denounced the plan, which would divide northern areas dominated by his Shiite movement between three regions, as an international conspiracy aimed at "tearing up the country."
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The Japanese government called on the US as well as European and Middle Eastern countries to help save two Japanese men held by the Islamic State militant group, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe flew home to deal with the crisis. Japan will "send a message calling on an immediate release of the hostages through diplomatic channels and all kinds of media," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. The group threatened in a video posted on the internet Tuesday to kill the two captives unless a USD200 million ransom payment was made within three days.
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US President Barack Obama enters the last two years of his final term facing potentially bruising battles with the opposition Republicans who now control both chambers of Congress. In his annual State of the Union address to Congress, Obama sought to find common ground with Republicans on policies he declared were "practical, not partisan," while throwing down the gauntlet on taxes and climate change.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times in GMT)

All Day World Economic Forum - Davos
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
13:30 US Building Permits/Housing Starts
13:55 US Redbook index
23:50 Japan Foreign bond/stock investment
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Thursday's Key UK Corporate Events

NCC Group - Half Year Results
Chemring Group - Full Year Results
St James's Place - Q4 New business results
Royal Mail Group - Trading Statement
Workspace Group - Q3 Interim Management Statement
Safestore Holdings -Full Year Results
Findel - Trading Statement
EMIS Group - Trading Statement
Countrywide - Trading Statement
Paragon Group of Companies - Interim Management Statement
T Clarke - Interim Management Statement
APC Technology - Full Year Results
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Thursday's Key Economic Events (all times in GMT)

All Day World Economic Forum - Davos
01:45 China MNI Business Sentiment Indicator
05:00 Japan BoJ Monthly Economic Survey
09:00 Italy Industrial Orders/Sales
09:30 UK Public Sector Net Borrowing
10:00 Italy Retail Sales
11:00 UK CBI Industrial Trends Survey - Orders
12:45 EU ECB Interest Rate Decision
13:30 EU ECB Monetary policy statement and press conference
13:30 US Jobless Claims
14:00 US Housing Price Index
15:00 EU Consumer Confidence Preliminary
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
16:00 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
16:00 US Kansas Fed manufacturing activity
20:00 US American Petroleum Institute Monthly Report
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