Saga Share News (SAGA)

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London on Wednesday are set to build on the previous session's gains as traders await the latest decision from the US Federal Reserve in the wake of dovish comments from the European Central Bank chief on Tuesday.In early UK company news, Whitbread reported a fall in first quarter sales amid challenging market conditions, while planning a new GBP2 billion share tender offer. Berkeley saw annual profit drop, as anticipated. CYBG unveiled a planned name change to Virgin Money UK. IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 11.26 points higher at 7,454.30 on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 index closed up 85.73 points, or 1.2%, at 7,443.04 on Tuesday."Stock markets surged yesterday after the ECB signalled the prospect of a rate cut as soon as September sending German bund yields to new record lows, and helping US markets back to within touching distance of their record highs of earlier this year," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets. ECB President Mario Draghi, speaking in Portugal on Tuesday, opened up the possibility of more stimulus measures should the economic outlook not improve and inflation not pick up in the eurozone.Hewson continued: "As a result, today's Fed meeting will be all the more important in how Fed officials spin the narrative on how they see the path for US interest rates over the rest of 2019."Markets need to be careful what they wish for in terms of rate expectations," he cautioned. "If the Fed is too dovish and signals a July rate cut investors would be justified in thinking further out to when the next cut might be coming, and why the Fed think it necessary to cut now given that the data is still fairly decent."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%.In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended up 1.7%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is up 1.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 2.3%.Japan's exports dropped 7.8% from a year earlier to JPY5.8 trillion, about USD53.8 billion, in May for the sixth consecutive month of falls, the government said Wednesday, as China's economic slowdown continued to hit Japanese exporters. Exports to China, Japan's largest trade partner, declined 9.7% year-on-year to JPY1.1 trillion, while imports edged down 0.9% to JPY1.5 trillion, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.Still to come the economic calendar on Wednesday, German producer prices are at 0700 BST, followed by the eurozone current account at 0900 BST.In the UK, producer and consumer prices are due out at 0930 BST. Eurozone construction output is at 1000 BST. In the US, the two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee concludes with a policy decision due at 1900 BST and a press conference with Chair Jerome Powell at 1930 BST."The recent activity data are still holding up reasonably well, so we doubt that the Fed will cut interest rates at the conclusion of the FOMC meeting on Wednesday," said Capital Economics."That said, with the survey evidence deteriorating and trade policy posing a significant downside risk, the tone of the accompanying statement and Chair Jerome Powell's press conference is likely to be dovish," Capital Economics added.In early UK company news, Whitbread said it staged a "resilient performance" amid a backdrop of tough market conditions in the first quarter. UK & Ireland like-for-like sales were down 3.7%, while total sales growth 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.Whitbread also said it will launch a further GBP2 billion share tender offer on Thursday, having already returned GBP482 million in a buyback completed in May.Housebuilder Berkeley Group Holdings reported annual profit at the top end of market forecasts, even though this marked a 21% fall on the year before.Revenue for the year to April 30 rose 4.1% to GBP2.96 billion, though 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. The company'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.Pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca announced three Japanese regulatory approvals. Bevespi Aerosphere has been approved as a fixed-dose, long-acting dual bronchodilator to relieve symptoms in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the drugmaker said. Further, Breztri Aerosphere, formerly PT010, has been approved as a triple-combination therapy to relieve chronic obstructive pulmonary disease symptoms. In addition, Lynparza has been given the thumbs-up for first-line maintenance therapy in BRCA-mutated advanced ovarian cancer.Acacia Mining said it "strongly disagrees" with statements made by Barrick Gold Corp regarding thesituation in Tanzania and Acacia's mine plans.Barrick on Tuesday said that its technical team has identified "significant risks" in Acacia's mine plans and concluded that "certain assumptions made by Acacia were not appropriately risked or supportable and that adjustments should be made".Turning to the situation in Tanzania, Barrick said that unless a solution is found to the current impasse in the short term, there is a "real risk of catastrophic loss of value for all stakeholders"."In the absence of a take-private transaction, Barrick does not consider there is any credible alternative solution which will preserve, to the extent possible, value for all stakeholders, and no such alternative has been presented by Acacia," said Barrick.In May, Acacia received an all-share takeover offer from gold mining giant Barrick for the rest of the Acacia's shares. Barrick already owns 64% of Acacia, and is offering 0.153 of a new Barrick share per each Acacia share it does not already own.Acacia, in response, said it "strongly disagrees" with a number of statements and was "surprised" by the timing of the announcement, given the two agreed to extend the put-up-or-shut-up deadline on Tuesday. "The company will provide a detailed response to the relevant aspects of the announcement, as appropriate, in due course," said Acacia, adding: "Shareholders are strongly urged to take no action at this time."Over-50s insurer Saga said it is making progress in its turnaround strategy, with trading "broadly" in line with expectations. Saga 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, the company added, with Saga expected to be in line with target booking levels for departures this year.Lender CYBG, at its capital markets day, said it will change its name to Virgin Money UK before the end of the year. The company 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."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.In the UK, the race for the Tory leadership is heating up with another candidate facing the axe on Wednesday following a TV debate which saw no clear winner.Conservative MPs will decide which of the five remaining contenders - Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Rory Stewart and Sajid Javid - deserves their support in a third elimination round.Dominic Raab was the latest to be forced out on Tuesday, as the runners are whittled down to a final pair for the party membership to choose between.The first debate involving frontrunner Johnson on Tuesday night is unlikely to have swayed many MPs' minds, ending with no clear winner after a fractious debate taking in Brexit, Islamophobia and climate change.As the candidate who currently has the fewest number of backers - just meeting the threshold of 33 votes - there are rumours Sajid Javid could drop out, but supporter Stephen Crabb told Newsnight his favourite had performed well in the debates and was not about to quit.