SLA.L Share News (SLA)

LONDON (Alliance News) - London stocks finished firmly in the green on Tuesday, rebounding from the previous session's losses as investors clung onto hopes that a trade deal between the US and China will be reached. Gains for DCC and Standard Life Aberdeen helped the FTSE 100 overcome Vodafone's slump after the telecommunications firm took the axe to its dividend.The FTSE 100 index closed up 77.92 points, or 1.1%, at 7,241.60 on Tuesday. The FTSE 250 ended up 240.54 points, or 1.3%, at 19,367.42, and the AIM All-Share closed up 3.98 points, or 0.4%, at 954.95.The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.9% at 12,263.97, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 1.1% at 17,398.52, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.3% at 11,741.85.In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended up 1.5%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 1.0%."If investors were to try and explain Tuesday's rebound, then it wouldn't be a surprise to see Trump's tweets cropping up in the answers. The social media President spoke of his 'unlimited' respect for, and friendship with, China's Xi Jinping," explained Connor Campbell at Spreadex. A trade dispute that had simmered for months boiled over on Friday when the White House raised tariffs on USD200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10% to 25% and threatened to raise tariffs on the remaining Chinese imports.China then announced a retaliatory increase of up to 25% in tariffs on USD60 billion worth of US imports starting June 1 as an ongoing trade war between the world's two largest economies widened.The news resulted in a series of bruising sessions for stocks last week, though Tuesday appeared to see risk sentiment recover. Helping market jitters over a possible trade war, US President Donald Trump said that he expects to have a fruitful meeting with Xi next month and that hadn't made a decision about imposing another USD325 billion tariffs on Chinese goods yet."He just got back from China. We'll let you know in about three or four weeks whether or not it was successful ... but I have a feeling it's going to be very successful," Trump said, referring to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's recent trade talks in Beijing.Spreadex's Campbell said: "The perception that a deal isn't out of the question, especially with a G20 summit in Japan next month, allowed the Dow Jones to jump 180."Stocks in New York were higher at the London equities close, with the DJIA up 0.9%, the S&P 500 index up 1.0%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.1%. Campbell continued: "Though the trade war talk remains the market's focus, the pound wasn't interested in anything but Brexit."The pound was largely unchanged after the latest UK jobs data, but sterling started to slip after Labour claimed there had been no "significant shift" from the government on cross-party Brexit talks."We have been at this five weeks, we haven't seen the significant shift yet that we require to be able to support a deal," said shadow chancellor John McDonnell.After a marathon Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, government ministers agreed to continue the cross-party efforts but stressed it was "imperative" for a Brexit deal to get through Parliament by the summer recess.The pound was quoted at USD1.2914 at the London equities close Tuesday, down compared to USD1.2960 at the close on Monday.Earlier on Tuesday, official data showed unemployment in the UK inched lower in March though the rate of earnings growth slowed.Including bonuses, average weekly earnings in the UK rose 3.2% year-on-year in the three months to March, slower than the 3.5% posted in February and below market consensus, as cited by FXStreet, of 3.4%.Excluding bonuses, earnings were up 3.3%, in line with consensus but slowing from February's 3.4% increase.The unemployment rate was 3.8%, down from 3.9% in February and the lowest figure since 1974. Unemployment has been declining steadily since 2011, the ONS noted, with the latest data representing the continued firming of the labour market.Meanwhile, in European data, industrial production fell for the second straight month in March.Industrial production in the eurozone declined 0.3% month-on-month in March, following a 0.1% fall in February and in line with economists' expectation. On a year-on-year basis, industrial production decreased 0.6% after remaining flat in the previous month. Economists had forecast a 0.8% fall.The euro stood at USD1.1208 at the European equities close Tuesday, down from USD1.1234 at the same time on Monday.In commodities, gold was quoted at USD1,295.40 an ounce at the London equities close Tuesday against USD1,297.85 at the close on Monday."Despite the firmer tone in equity markets, gold prices have managed to hold onto most of the gains from yesterday, which suggests that investors are in no hurry to pare back their holdings in the wake of yesterday's sharp falls," commented Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.Gold miner Fresnillo sat higher amid the steady gold price, finishing up 1.9% on Tuesday.Elsewhere, Brent oil was quoted at USD71.33 a barrel at the London equities close Tuesday, up from USD70.84 late Monday.Back among the FTSE 100 risers on Tuesday, DCC gained 3.6% after the sales and marketing services company raised its dividend following a strong rise in annual earnings on the back of both acquisitions and organic growth.For the year ended March 31, the company reported pretax profit of GBP327.4 million, up from GBP260.2 million in the year ago period, on a revenue of GBP15.23 billion and GBP13.12 billion, respectively.DCC raised its final dividend by 14% to 93.37p per share, giving a total payout of 138.35p, up 13% from 122.98p paid a year ago.Standard Life finished up 2.0% as it saw growth in first-quarter assets under management & administration.At March 31, the Edinburgh-headquartered investment company reported assets under management & administration of GBP568.9 billion, 3.2% higher than the GBP551.5 billion reported at December 31.Standard Life Aberdeen attributed the rise in overall assets to "positive" market movements, but this was offset partly by the strength of sterling in the period.Towards the bottom of the index was Vodafone, ending down 3.8% as it slashed its dividend by 40%.Vodafone has returned a final dividend of 4.16 euro cents for the 12 months to March 31, taking the year's total to 9.00 cents, down 40%. In its prior year, Vodafone paid 15.07 cents, and consensus had been for a cut to 14.57 cents. Vodafone's loss from continuing operations for the 12 months to March was EUR4.11 billion, after a EUR4.76 billion profit the year before. During the year, Vodafone booked a loss on the sale of Vodafone India, as well as EUR3.50 billion in impairments as announced back in November.Vodafone's adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation declined 4.1% to EUR13.92 billion, and fell 0.5% organically. On an underlying basis, growth was 3.1%, in line with guidance of "around" 3%. Vodafone's revenue slipped 6.2% to EUR43.67 billion, with the company adopting the IFRS 15 accounting standard compared to IFRS 18 previously. Land Securities shed 1.4% after it reported a widened annual loss. For the year ended March 31, the company's pretax loss widened to GBP123 million from a GBP43 million loss the year before.However, adjusted pretax profit was up 8.9% to GBP442 million from GBP406 million last year, reflecting the benefit of income from completed developments, high occupancy, and the effect of refinancing bonds in the previous financial year.At March 31, Land Securities' net asset value per share stood at 1,341p compared to 1,404p at the same time last year, representing a 4.5% decrease.In the FTSE 250, Greggs gained 15% after the baker said its annual results are expected to be better than previously thought. This comes after sales in the first 19 weeks of 2019 grew 15% year-on-year, well ahead of the 4.7% growth reported for the same period of 2018. On a like-for-like basis, company-managed store sales growth was 11% compared to just 1.0% a year before.Greggs in March reported a "very strong" start to 2019, in part due to the publicity around the launch of its vegan sausage roll. This momentum has continued, it said, helped by the new vegan sausage rolls now being available in all stores.During Tuesday's session, Greggs shares hit an all-time high of 2,088.00 pence.Security services firm G4S gained 4.2% after Morgan Stanley resumed the stock with an Equal Weight rating.Weighing on the mid-caps, Renishaw closed down 6.4% after warning on its annual outturn. Renishaw, which makes high-precision products for the metrology and healthcare markets, reported a 19% fall in pretax profit for the nine months to March, at GBP84.8 million. The adjusted figure dipped 18% to GBP79.6 million.Following this soft performance, Renishaw now expects pretax profit in the range of GBP111 million to GBP126 million for its year ending June, and adjusted pretax profit between GBP105 million to GBP120 million.In March, Renishaw guided for a pretax profit of GBP123 million to GBP141 million, and the adjusted figure between GBP117 million to GBP135 million. In the UK corporate calendar on Wednesday are interim results from travel firm TUI and contract caterer Compass, while there are annual results from property investor British Land Co and credit checking firm Experian. B&Q owner Kingfisher releases first-quarter results, while fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown puts out a trading statement.In the economic calendar on Wednesday, Chinese industrial production and retail sales are at 0300 BST while German GDP is at 0700 BST. Later is French CPI at 0745 BST and eurozone GDP at 1000 BST. In the afternoon are US retail sales at 1330 BST.