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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
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COMPANIES
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GlaxoSmithKline and partner Theravance announced the initial results from the Study to Understand Mortality and MorbidITy, or SUMMIT, trials conducted on the Relvar/Breo Ellipta drugs for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The drugmaker said the risk of dying taking the drug dose was 12.2% lower than on placebo over the study period, which is not statistically significant and therefore meant the drug did not meet its primary endpoint. In addition, the treatment missed its two secondary endpoint goals of reducing the rate of lung function decline or the risk of experiencing an on-treatment cardiovascular event, such as a stroke, angina or heart attack.
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Housebuilder Barratt Developments said its pretax profit, revenue and house sales were all higher in the year to the end of June, prompting the company to return substantially more money to shareholders, including a special dividend. The company said it will pay a 10.0 pence per share special dividend. In addition to a total ordinary dividend payout of 15.1p, up from 10.3p a year earlier, the total payout to shareholders will be 25.1 pence per share, more than double the 10.3 pence it paid the year before and meaning its total capital return for the year is GBP250.0 million, up from GBP102.0 million.
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Sports Direct International said that trading so far in its new financial year has continued to be in line with management expectations. In a trading update ahead of its annual general meeting being held Wednesday, the sporting goods retailer said that there has been no material change in the financial position of the group since the end of its last financial year and that trading from April 27 to September 8 was in line.
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SABMiller said Gavin Hattersley has been appointed as chief executive of MillerCoors, the US joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Co. Hattersley, who has been serving as interim CEO since July 1 and was also chief financial officer of Molson Coors, is replacing Tom Long who retired in June.
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Hargreaves Lansdown reported a 6% drop in pretax profit as margins came under pressure, with the fall attributed to the fund supermarket's move to cut charges for clients, lower interest margins on client cash and lacklustre stock markets. The fund supermarket, which sells financial products to retail clients, said it made a GBP199.0 million pretax profit in the year ended June 30, compared with GBP209.8 million in the prior year. The company raised its dividend for the year to 33 pence per share from 32.0p.
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A Boeing 777-200 operated by British Airways, a unit of International Consolidated Airlines Group, suffered a major engine failure as it was beginning its takeoff in Las Vegas, triggering a fire and requiring an emergency evacuation, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The failure occurred in the left engine as the aircraft was accelerating on the runway for takeoff late on Tuesday. There were 159 passengers and 13 crew on the flight. Seven passengers received medical treatment for minor injuries.
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Royal Dutch Shell has shelved its Louisiana-to-Texas Westward Ho pipeline project following years of delays, a spokeswoman has confirmed to Reuters. Kimberly Windon, a spokeswoman for the oil major, said that following a "thorough review and as a result of changing market conditions" the company has decided not to proceed with the project. Westward Ho was first proposed in 2011 with a top capacity of 900,000 barrels per day and had been due to start in late 2015.
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HSBC Holdings and Santander are two of the banks organised into subsidiaries in different countries that have won a key change to proposed global rules targeted at ending bailouts of large banks by taxpayers, the Financial Times reported. According to the report, the Financial Stability Board has decided to hold such groups to the same standards as rivals such as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.
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Entertainment One said it traded in line with its expectations in its first quarter, seeing revenue rise 1% on a reported basis, driven by a strong performance in its Television segment that offset a weaker performance in Film. The company said its full-year underlying earnings continue to be in line with its expectations, although it cautioned that its reported revenues and earnings remain subject to continued pressure from the appreciation of sterling.
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MARKETS
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UK indices traded higher, boosted by mining stocks, as Chinese stocks rallied on expectations of further stimulus measures by the country's authorities.
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FTSE 100: up 1.8% at 6,259.22
FTSE 250: up 1.1% at 17,184.85
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 736.47
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The pound fell sharply against the dollar as the UK visible trade deficit widened for a second straight month in July to its biggest level in a year and industrial and manufacturing output also dropped unexpectedly in July.
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GBP: down at USD1.5365
EUR: down at USD1.1182

GOLD: down at USD1121.42 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD49.48 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK industrial and manufacturing output dropped unexpectedly in July, the Office for National Statistics said. Industrial output dropped 0.4% on a monthly basis in July, confounding expectations for a marginal growth of 0.1%. Production decreased 0.4% in June. Manufacturing output declined 0.8%, while economists had expected it to grow 0.2% again as seen in June.
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The UK's visible trade deficit widened for a second straight month in July to its biggest level in a year, exceeding economists' expectations, figures from the ONS showed. The deficit in the trade in goods rose to GBP11.082 billion from GBP8.507 billion in June. Economists had forecast a GBP9.5 billion shortfall. The latest deficit figure was the biggest since the GBP11.244 billion shortfall logged in July 2014. The total trade deficit widened to GBP3.4 billion from GBP2.6 billion in the previous month.
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Europe must do more to tackle its migration crisis and should not be afraid of the refugees streaming across its borders, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said, as he unveiled a new package of proposals. "It is true that Europe cannot house all the misery of the world, but let us be honest and put things into perspective," he told the European Parliament during an annual state of the union speech which he dedicated mostly to the migration crisis. "There is certainly an important, an unprecedented number of refugees coming to Europe at the moment. However, they still represent just 0.11% of the total EU population," he said. "This is not a time to take fright, it's a time of humanity and of human dignity."
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British shop prices declined for the twenty-eighth consecutive month in August, defying expectations for a slower drop, the British Retail Consortium said. Shop prices fell 1.4% year-over-year in August, the same rate of decrease as in the previous month. Economists had forecast only a 0.2% drop for the month. Food price inflation rose marginally to 0.2% in August from 0.1% in the preceding month. At the same time, non-food prices declined at a faster pace of 2.4% in August, following a 2.3% fall in July. "A relatively benign economic environment and a fiercely competitive market will see retailers continue to respond to their customers with prices and promotions to maintain market share," BRC Director General, Helen Dickinson, said.
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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for using a private email server while US secretary of state, saying the decision was a "mistake". The admission in an interview with ABC News comes after she refused to apologize in separate interviews over the weekend and as questions about her email practices continue to dog her campaign.
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Republican lawmakers on Tuesday pledged an extensive debate on the international agreement on Iran's nuclear programme, even as US President Barack Obama secured enough support to avoid defeat on one of his key foreign policy achievements. The full Senate will begin debate Wednesday, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. Enough senators had signed on to support the deal as of Tuesday that Obama's Democrats could engage in a procedural measure to block a vote on a resolution against the Iran deal.
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Wayne Rooney became England's all-time goal scorer as his team beat Switzerland 2-0 in Euro 2016 qualifying Tuesday. Rooney converted a second-half penalty for his 50th international goal, moving him past Bobby Charlton on the scoring list. "It's a great feeling," Rooney, 29, told ITV. "To finally do it is a dream come true."
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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