LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares opened broadly lower in London Tuesday following a weak close on Wall Street on Monday, with budget airline easyJet leading FTSE 100 decliners after giving a weak outlook.
The FTSE 100 trades down 1.0% at 6,959.17 with only a handful of stocks posting gains. The FTSE 250 is down 0.8% at 17,731.37, and the AIM All-Share index is down 0.2% at 757.62.
European stocks also have started lower, with the CAC 40 in Paris down 0.8%, and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt down 1.0%.
In New York on Monday, the DJIA and the S&P 500 both ended down 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2%. A sharp jump in Treasury yields weighed on stocks, with bonds moving back to the downside after rebounding in the two previous sessions. The steep pullback by Treasuries was partly due to continued weakness among European bonds as well as an influx of supply in the coming days.
In Asia Tuesday, the Japanese Nikkei closed flat, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng is down 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite is up 1.6%.
Low-cost airline easyJet said it swung to a profit in the first half of its financial year as it flew more passengers and it benefited from lower fuel prices and favourable exchange rate movements. It said it is still on track to grow revenue and profit in the year as a whole despite a hit in April from an air traffic control strike in France.
EasyJet said it made a pretax profit of GBP5 million in the six months to end-March, compared with a loss of GBP53 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP1.77 billion from GBP1.70 billion.
Looking forward, easyJet warned that air traffic control strikes in France had knocked about GBP25 million off its profit, and it expects revenue per seat at constant currency to decline by low single-digit percentage points in the second half of the year. EasyJet is the worst performer in the FTSE 100, down 7.0%.
Experian, down 1.7%, said earnings in its recently completed financial year were hurt by unwelcome foreign exchange movements and cautioned that it expects earnings to be affected in its current financial year. In a statement, the information services and credit report company said it made a USD1.01 billion pretax profit in the year ended March 31, compared with USD1.05 billion in the prior year.
Regus is the worst FTSE 250 performer, down 5.8%. JP Morgan Securities said that Estorn Ltd has agreed to sell 30 million Regus shares at 245 pence each, raising gross proceeds of about GBP73.5 million for the vehicle controlled by the serviced office provider's founder Mark Dixon. Regus currently trades at 247.70p.
Spire Healthcare Group reiterated its full-year guidance for 2015, as it traded positively and in line with expectations in its first quarter. The independent hospital group had guided at the time of its 2014 results in March for an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin in line with 2014 and high single-digit growth in earnings per share. The company trades down 0.3%.
Greece's troubles remain in the spotlight as Eurozone finance ministers told the country's government on Monday to speed up work aimed at reaching an agreement with its creditors, amid fears that Athens could soon run out of money. As Greece continues to access the EUR7.2 billion in remaining bailout funds, the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers warned in a joint statement that "more time and effort are needed to bridge the gaps on the remaining open issues".
Athens made a EUR756 million loan repayment to the IMF on Monday, hours ahead of a Tuesday deadline, Greek state radio reported. It is one of a series of debt redemption tranches that have raised concerns about Greece's ability to keep paying its bills.
In the economic calendar, there are UK industrial and manufacturing production figures at 0930 BST and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research's UK GDP estimate at 1500 BST.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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