LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks opened higher Friday, buoyed by a rise in oil following reports of an upcoming meeting between major oil producers to curb global supplies.
Not joining in were shares in Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which plunged 7.6% after the state-backed bank reported its eighth consecutive annual net loss.
That net loss did narrow, however, to GBP1.98 billion in 2015 from GBP3.47 billion in 2014, even though the bank swung to a GBP2.74 billion net loss in the fourth quarter from a GBP940 million net profit the corresponding three months the prior year. RBS's annual adjusted operating profit fell to GBP4.41 billion from GBP6.06 billion the prior year, due to lower income and losses on asset disposals.
RBS said its Personal & Business Banking and Commercial & Private Banking divisions traded in line with expectations in the first six weeks of 2016, but its Corporate & Institutional Banking arm has had a "difficult start" to the year, due to tough market conditions.
The FTSE 100 was up 1.2%, or 74.15 points, at 6,086.96.
The FTSE 250 was up 0.9% at 16,553.99 and the AIM All-Share was flat at 689.16. European stocks also continued their positive momentum from Thursday. The CAC 40 index in Paris was up 1.7% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt up 1.9%
In Asia Friday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo closed up 0.3%, the Shanghai Composite ended up 1.0% and the Hang Seng up 2.5%.
Oil producers were amongst gainers in the London market, with Royal Dutch Shell 'B' shares up 1.6% and BP 1.4%.
Reports on Thursday of an expected meeting between oil producers Venezuela, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in the coming days renewed hopes of a deal to curb global oil supplies.
Just after the London stock market open, Brent oil traded at USD35.34 a barrel, higher than the USD33.75 seen at the London close on Thursday. West Texas Intermediate was at USD33.31 on Friday versus the USD31.30 a barrel seen on Thursday.
Shares in Pearson traded up 4.0%, even though the company said it swung to a loss in 2015 due to the huge restructuring it is undertaking to return itself to health, as sales also dipped in competitive markets and it said stability will start to return only by 2018.
The FTSE 100-listed education and publishing group said it swung to a pretax loss of GBP433.0 million for the year to the end of December, compared to a GBP255.0 million profit in 2014, primarily due to the one-off costs the group will book for the restructuring programme.
Revenue dipped 2.0% to GBP4.47 billion from GBP4.54 billion, as its Pearson VUE, Connections Education and Wall Street English business in China all performed well, but this was offset by declines in its US Higher Education, UK Qualifications and South African units.
Pearson said it will pay a final dividend of 34.00 pence per share, meaning its total dividend will edge up to 52.00p from 51.00p, in line with the level at which it set the payout when it outlined its restructuring plans last month.
London Stock Exchange Group and Deutsche Boerse, the European exchanges which are in talks to merge, said that the outcome of the UK's Brexit vote will not be a condition of a deal.
The news came as the companies said a combined entity would be a UK PLC domiciled in London, with headquarters in London and Frankfurt, a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange and a prime standard listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Deutsche Boerse Chief Executive Officer Carsten Kengeter would lead the combined entity, the companies said, taking the position of chief executive officer, with LSE Group Chief Executive Officer Xavier Rolet to step down on completion of a deal.
Shares in LSE traded up 2.3% at the open.
Engineer IMI led the early FTSE 250 gainers, up 3.8%, despite saying its pretax profit and revenue fell in 2015, in line with the profit warning the group issued earlier in the year as it contended with tough markets.
The company, which makes flow and fluid control products and heating and cooling systems, said its pretax profit fell 34% to GBP163.0 million from GBP246.0 million a year earlier, as revenue declined 7.0% to GBP1.58 billion from GBP1.69 billion.
IMI expects the tough conditions in its markets to continue in the first half and said margins are likely to decline further before some improvement is seen in the second half of 2016 as the benefits of its restructuring plans flow through.
On the expectation of improvements on the horizon, IMI said it will hike its final dividend slightly to 24.5 pence from 24.0p, taking its total dividend up to 38.4p from 37.6p.
William Hill reported a drop in profit in 2015, as revenue fell slightly following a tough comparative period which included the football World Cup and as it faced additional gambling duties in the UK, but increased its dividend payout ratio and announced a share buyback.
The betting company said pretax profit in 2015 fell to GBP184.7 million from GBP233.9 million in 2014, as revenue decreased by 1% to GBP1.59 billion from GBP1.61 billion.
William Hill said its results were hit by the lack of a major football tournament in the period, as the prior year benefited from the FIFA World Cup, a lower average number of betting shops, less favourable sporting results in retail, and extensive work to refocus the Australian business.
The bookmaker was the worst performer in the FTSE 250, down 1.2%.
The highlights in the economic calendar Friday are the second reading of US GDP and US goods trade balances both at 1330 GMT, while personal consumption expenditure at 1500 GMT.
Earlier in the day, there are business and economic climate surveys for the eurozone at 1000 GMT and German inflation at 1300 GMT.
In the rest of the US calendar, there is the Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index at 1500 GMT.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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