Saga Share News (SAGA)

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London on Wednesday were struggling to build on the previous session's gains, as focus lies on whether the US central bank later in the day will signal an interest rate cut is on the cards next month. The FTSE 100 was slightly lower in early trade, with Berkeley at the top of the index but Just Eat, easyJet and Whitbread dragging at the other end.The index was down 4.00 points, or 0.1%, at 7,439.04 early Wednesday. The FTSE 250 was up 4.20 points at 19,315.99, while the AIM All-Share was down 0.1% at 937.14.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.2% at 12,614.97. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.1% at 17,296.15 with the Cboe UK Small Companies flat at 11,647.37.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.1% and down 0.1% respectively in morning trade.In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended up 1.7%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 1.0%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 2.3% in late trade. In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended strongly positive, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.4%, the S&P 500 up 1.0% and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.4%."Asian equities are up sharply overnight following big gains yesterday in Europe and on Wall Street," said Lloyds Banking. "Markets were lifted by comments from ECB President Draghi that the Eurozone central bank will provide more stimulus unless economic conditions improve.""The outcome of the US Fed's policy meeting will be the key event of the day," Lloyds continued. "As markets see an interest rate reduction by July as very likely they will be looking for a strong signal of easing intentions today."The two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee concludes on Wednesday with a policy decision due at 1900 BST and a press conference with Chair Jerome Powell at 1930 BSTElsewhere in the economic calendar on Wednesday, the eurozone current account is out at 0900 BST while in the UK, producer and consumer prices are due out at 0930 BST. Eurozone construction output is at 1000 BST. Housebuilder Berkeley Group was up 4.5%, at the very top of the FTSE 100, after reporting profit at the top end of market forecasts - albeit marking a more than 20% fall on the year before. Revenue for the year to April 30 rose 4.1% to GBP2.96 billion, but pretax profit fell 21% to GBP775.2 million. Nonetheless, this profit figure was at the top end of market expectations, which the company put down to "resilient trading" in the year.Berkeley's gross margin slipped to 31.3% from 34.6% the year before, reflecting the mix of properties sold."Berkeley starts the coming year from a position of strength, with net cash of GBP975.0 million, forward sales of GBP1.8 billion and an estimated GBP6.2 billion of gross profit in our land holdings, and this means we can look beyond the current period of uncertainty with confidence," said Chief Executive Rob Perrins.Just Eat and easyJet were towards the bottom of the large-cap index, down 2.3% and 1.7% respectively after ratings downgrades. UBS cut takeaway platform Just Eat to Neutral from Buy, while low-cost airline easyJet was cut to Reduce from Hold by HSBC. Whitbread was down 1.2% after it reported a fall in first-quarter sales amid tough market conditions.UK & Ireland like-for-like sales were down 3.7%, while total sales fell 1.1%. Total group sales, including UKI and Germany, fell 1.0%.As a result of weaker demand, Premier Inn's UK total accommodation sales declined 1.5% in the first quarter. On a like-for-like basis, accommodation sales were down 4.6%. Food & Beverage sales in the UK, meanwhile, fell 0.4%, down 2.1% on a like-for-like basis."It is difficult to predict how business confidence and business investment will evolve over the year, however, we continue to monitor its impact on the market closely and will provide an update at our first-half results in October," Whitbread said.In Germany, Whitbread said its hotel in Frankfurt continues to perform well, and its second hotel in Hamburg - which has only been open for three months - is performing ahead of expectations."We have delivered a resilient performance in the first quarter despite more challenging market conditions and we continue to make good progress with our efficiency programme, which is helping to partially offset another year of high industry cost inflation," said Chief Executive Alison Brittain.In the FTSE 250, lender CYBG gained 2.6% as it raised its cost-savings target. CYBG, at its capital markets day, said it will change its name to Virgin Money UK before the end of the year. The bank launched a "refreshed strategy" as it completes the full integration of Virgin Money into the group, with the re-launch of the Virgin Money brand and re-branding of the business to begin in late 2019.CYBG affirmed its 2019 guidance, and said it now expects GBP200 million in net cost savings by 2022, up from GBP150 million previously. "Achieving our financial targets will create a significantly more efficient and profitable business with strong and sustainable returns for shareholders. Despite the ongoing Brexit headwinds and continued competitive pressures, the strength of the newly combined Group gives us every confidence we will deliver on our targets," said CYBG Chief Executive David Duffy.Saga was at the bottom of the FTSE 250, down 4.3% as it cautioned on a "very competitive" travel market. The over-50s insurer said its new three-year fixed price products in Motor and Home are beginning to turn the firm back to a direct distribution model."While we have seen encouraging progress, it is very early days in the turn-around strategy for the Retail Broking business and the insurance market remains challenging. We will continue to test and learn over the coming months as we refine the approach to our new products," said Saga.Meanwhile, the travel market remains "very competitive" with booked revenue for the Tour Operations unit down 4% as at Saturday versus a year prior. Cruise bookings are more resilient, Saga added, expected to be in line with target booking levels for departures this year.