SEPU.L Share News (SEPU)

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks ended higher on Monday, a day before the US presidential election, as Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was cleared of criminal charges by the FBI over her use of a private email server while acting as secretary of state.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said the FBI's review of new evidence relating to Clinton's emails gave it no reason to take action against the Democratic nominee, over a week after the bureau first said it was launching a fresh probe.

As US secretary of state, Clinton allegedly used a private server to send classified information. The FBI investigated this and closed that probe in July with no charges brought against Clinton.

"FBI Director James Comey announcing no criminal wrongdoing in a latest batch of Hillary Clinton emails gives her the unexpected opportunity for a last hurrah before polling starts on Tuesday. The perception in markets is that this should edge Hillary Clinton over the finishing line," said Jasper Lawler, market analyst CMC Markets.

Polling stations open for voting on Tuesday, though by Friday nearly 40.0 million Americans had already voted early. Results are expected early Wednesday morning London time.

The dollar was supported by the positive news for Clinton. At the London equities close, the pound traded the greenback at USD1.2407 versus USD1.2517 at the close on Friday. The euro was quoted at USD1.1038 at the close Monday compared to USD1.1123 at the same time on Friday.

Recently, the resurgence of Republican candidate Donald Trump in the polls has lifted the price of gold, but the FBI's clearance of Clinton sent the metal lower on Monday. At the close it traded at USD1,281.50 an ounce, lower than the USD1,303.34 seen at the same time on Friday.

Brent crude traded at USD45.55 a barrel at the close Monday, versus USD45.53 at the close on Friday.

The FTSE 100 ended up 1.7%, or 113.64 points, at 6,806.90. The FTSE 250 closed up 1.1%, or 186.42 points, at 17,457.66, and the AIM All-Share ended up 0.35 point, at 802.23.

The BATS UK 100 index rose 1.4% to 11,483.16, the BATS 250 ended up 0.9% at 15,821.14, and the BATS Small Companies closed up 0.3% at 10,705.25.

In Europe, the French CAC 40 and the German DAX 30 both ended up 1.9%.

On Wall Street at the London close, the Dow 30 was up up 1.7%, the S&P 500 was up 1.9% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 2.3%.

HSBC Holdings closed as one of the best performers in the FTSE 100, up 4.7%. The UK-based but Asia-focused global lender is the index's second biggest constituent after oil and gas major Royal Dutch Shell.

HSBC posted an increase in underlying profit in the third quarter of 2016, though one-off items and foreign exchange movements dragged down its reported profit.

The bank said its reported pretax profit for the quarter to the end of September was USD843.0 million, an 86% decline on the USD6.10 billion it reported a year prior. However, the reduction in profit was driven by a number of significant items including a USD1.7 billion loss recognised on the sale of HSBC's Brazilian business to Banco Bradesco, and adverse fair value movements of USD1.4 billion arising from changes in credit spreads on the bank's debt.

Stripping out those items and foreign exchange movements, the bank's adjusted pretax profit grew by 7% to USD5.59 billion from USD5.24 billion. This came ahead of the company-compiled consensus of USD5.1 billion, which Shore Capital analyst Gary Greenwood said was primarily due to lower-than-expected costs and impairments, with revenue in-line.

Irish budget carrier Ryanair Holdings said it remains cautious on the outlook for its 2017 financial year due to Brexit-related uncertainty and weaker air fares, as revenue and profit rose in the first half.

Ryanair said it remains comfortable with its guidance for full-year net profit of between EUR1.30 billion and EUR1.35 billion, but is cautious on the outlook for the second half to the end of March 2017. It added this guidance is dependent on no significant adverse shift in airfares in the fourth quarter of its financial year.

However, the airline lifted its long-term traffic forecasts to 200 million customers per annum by March 2024 from 180 million. It raised its medium-term guidance for ancillary sales to 30% of revenues from 20%, over the next four years to March 2020.

Ryanair also launched a share buyback of up to EUR550 million over the four months from November 2016 to February 2017. The stock traded closed up 5.3%.

e2v technologies closed as the worst performer in the FTSE All-Share index, down 17%. The semiconductor and imaging technology company said it made a pretax profit of GBP7.1 million in the half-year to the end of September, nearly halved from the GBP13.8 million it made a year before.

e2v said trading conditions in the first half were challenging and added that, amid potential order delays for its Space Imaging unit, its trading performance for the full financial year to March 2017, may "modestly" miss its previous expectations.

Sepura was the best FTSE Small Cap performer up 18%. After the London market close on Friday, the critical communications provider said it was in preliminary talks with Hytera Communications Corp about a potential takeover offer.

Sepura said Hytera has confirmed that, should an offer be made, it was likely to be solely in cash, though it said there was no certainty that an offer will be made. Hytera is a Chinese radio transceivers and radio systems maker.

IT managed services company Redcentric said it has uncovered accounting balances misstatements in its results for the half-year to the end of September and has served notice to its current finance chief.

Redcentric said a forensic review of its accounts, which will delay the publication of its results from the previously set date of November 14, has identified that audited accounts for previous years will likely have to be restated. The company said that, based on the information currently available, the impact of correcting these past misstatements will amount to reducing net assets by around GBP10.0 million.

Redcentric served notice to Chief Financial Officer Tim Coleman and placed him on gardening leave with immediate effect. The stock closed down 60%, making it the worst performer in the AIM All-Share.

In the economic calendar for Tuesday, Chinese trade balances data are out at 0200 GMT, German industrial production and trade balances are at 0700 GMT, and UK manufacturing and industrial production at 0930 GMT. US JOLTS job openings are at 1400 GMT, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research's UK GDP estimate is at 1500 GMT, and the American Petroleum Institute's crude oil stocks are at 2100 GMT.

In the UK corporate calendar, there are full-year results from tobacco company Imperial Brands and Primark and British Sugar owner Associated British Foods. Clothing, homeware and food retailer Marks & Spencer Group, engineering software Aveva Group, printing software company Grafenia, and industrial fastenings supplier Trifast all report interim results. Home and motor insurer Direct Line Insurance Group issues a trading statement, as does aviation services provider BBA Aviation and insurance and employee benefits company Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group.

By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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