LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are set to open in the green on Friday, with miner Glencore releasing strong 2018 production figures, while SSE has sold two wind farm interests to Greencoat UK Wind. Elsewhere, FTSE 250 members Euromoney Institutional Investor and TalkTalk Telecom both reported solid trading updates. IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 10 points higher at 6,978.85. The blue chip index closed up 27.22 points, or 0.4%, at 6,968.85 on Thursday. On Friday, focus later on will be on the US Labor Department's jobs report for January at 1330 GMT."Predicting the outcome of the nonfarm payrolls report is never an easy task, and this one is practically impossible to forecast with any degree of confidence because some of the most important leading employment indicators we usually take into account won't be released until after the jobs report is published," said Forex.com's Fawad Razaqzada. "The ISM manufacturing PMI and its employment index will be released later in the day on Friday while the headline and employment component of the dominant services sector PMI will be released next week.""The consensus expectations for Friday's headline non-farm payrolls data point to around 165,000 jobs added in January, after December's much stronger-than-expected 312,000 print," he continued."The January unemployment rate is expected to have remained unchanged at 3.9%. In terms of wage growth, average hourly earnings are expected to have increased by 0.3% month-over-month after last December's 0.4% increase."In UK corporate news, FTSE 100-listed Glencore reported strong increases in production in 2018, with copper, cobalt and nickel output all rising by double-digits.Own-sourced copper production was up 11% in 2018 to 1.5 million tonnes, which mainly reflected the restart of Katanga's processing operations in late 2017. Copper sales in 2018 were around 22,000 tonnes lower than production due to timing of shipments, Glencore added.Cobalt production jumped 54% to 14,800 tonnes, which the miner said mainly related to the Katanga mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Own-sourced nickel production of 123,800 tonnes was up 13% on last year, while attributable ferrochrome production of 1.6 million tonnes was roughly the same as last year. SSE confirmed it has sold its 49.9% stake in the Stronelairg and Dunmaglass wind farms to FTSE 250 member Greencoat UK Wind and a "major" UK pension fund.SSE will receive GBP635 million from the sale, and will use GBP200 million to fund a buyback from shareholders. The rest will be used to service debt.Greencoat will be paying GBP452 million, with the pension fund paying the rest. The energy investor will raise GBP131 million in a placing with investors at 127 pence a share, with proceeds to be used to repay or reduce future drawdowns of its credit facility. Paddy Power Betfair also has made an acquisition, taking a 51% stake in Georgian betting firm Adjarabet for GBP101 million in cash. Paddy Power said the deal gives the firm exposure to two "fast-growing" markets, Georgia and Armenia. Events and publishing company Informa said it sold its Life Sciences Media Brands Portfolio to US-based medical communications firm MJH Associates, for "just over" USD100 million. The portfolio was previously part of business-to-business multimedia firm UBM PLC, with which the FTSE 100 firm merged in June. In the mid-cap FTSE 250, TalkTalk Telecom reported a 2.9% rise in headline revenue for its third quarter ended December to GBP386 million. The customer base has grown by 44,000 over the quarter, from 37,000 new customers a year prior, with both the Consumer and Business-to-Business arms registered double-digit growth.There was low churn, TalkTalk continued, and year-to-date broadband net adds of 148,000 are close to full-year guidance of 150,000 net adds. Looking ahead, underlying operations are on track, and TalkTalk expects "significant" year-on-year headline profit growth. For its year ending March, TalkTalk expects headline earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation between GBP245 million and GBP250 million, from GBP197 million year-on-year. Takeover target RPC reported revenue of GBP894 million for its third quarter ended December, ahead year-on-year with organic growth at 1.4%. However, sales growth did "moderate" after what RPC described as a "weak" period around Christmas. Third-quarter operating profit was flat year-on-year, with a time lag on passing on costs to customers providing a temporary GBP10 million headwind. RPC has agreed a takeover deal with Apollo Global Management, but US-based Berry Global Group on Thursday announced it could be making its own bid. Euromoney Institutional Investor reported a solid first quarter, with revenue falling to GBP92.6 million from GBP100.8 million in the three months to December year-on-year on the back of a sale. Underlying revenue grew 1%, while underlying subscription revenue also increased 1%. Euromoney has left its outlook for its full year unchanged, and added its cash position is strong and its strategy overall is going well. Elsewhere, furniture retailer ScS Group said it is no longer interested in a deal for Sofa.com, giving no details as to why it has ended its pursuit. Sky News had reported on Tuesday this week ScS was competing against Sport's Direct's Chief Executive Mike Ashley for the online sofa retailer. Advertiser M&C Saatchi expects results in line with expectations for 2018, with organic growth beating sector averages.The company also expects further "good" progress n 2018, with a solid start to the year made.M&C Saatchi has also sold its 25% stake in media agency Walker Media for GBP25 million, with funds to be used "to fund future growth". With a deadline for closing trade negotiations a month away, US President Donald Trump sat down with a high-ranking Chinese delegation at the White House on Thursday, in an attempt to advance a deal and stave off a slew of new tariffs.Trump, speaking after two days of intense talks between negotiating teams, said a final deal can only be reached when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in February, though there is not yet a fixed date.The US has already raised tariffs on USD250 billion worth of Chinese imports, and Beijing has retaliated. If no deal is reached on March 1, the US will up the tariffs on USD200 billion worth of goods, from 10% to 25%, which could roil global markets.Some of the outstanding issues involve Trump's concerns over the US trade deficit with China and Beijing's rules on market access and intellectual property, effectively meaning Washington wants significant changes to China's economic model.In other US political news, the top Democrat in the US Congress said there will not be funding for a wall on the border with Mexico, as demanded by Trump, with negotiations under way on legislation to avoid a second government shutdown.Trump in turn cast doubt on whether there really can be a deal between his Republican Party and rival Democrats.In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended mostly higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending 0.1% lower, the S&P 500 up 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.4%. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed 0.1% higher on Friday. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 1.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.2% late on. Overnight, China's manufacturing PMI for January slipped to 48.3 from 49.7 in December, a lowest reading since early 2016, according to CMC Markets UK's David Madden.Japan also released manufacturing PMI, showing the manufacturing sector continued to expand in January, albeit at a slower pace, with a manufacturing PMI score of 50.3.That's down from 52.6 in December, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.In the UK, the 650 members of the UK Parliament's main elected house, the Commons, are expected to give up a scheduled one-week holiday next month to allow more time to debate Brexit-related legislation, the government said on Thursday.Andrea Leadsom, Prime Minister Theresa May's leader in the Commons, said the Conservative government had "no plans to bring forward a motion to agree dates for the February recess," which had been scheduled from February 18-22.She said Parliament might "need to continue to sit to make progress on the key business before it," following Tuesday's narrow majority in support of May's plan to negotiate changes to the Brexit withdrawal agreement."I think our constituents would expect the house to continue to make progress at this important time," Leadsom said.The economic events calendar on Friday has more manufacturing PMI data from Italy at 0845 GMT, France at 0850 GMT, Germany at 0855 GMT, the eurozone at 0900 GMT, and UK at 0930 GMT.
14 Mar 2016 15:56
