SSE Share News (SSE)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened in the green on Friday, though TalkTalk proved a significant drag in the FTSE 250 after warning it will miss consensus in its current financial year. The FTSE 100 was up 18.56 points, or 0.3%, at 6,987.41.The FTSE 250 was 56.35 points higher, or 0.3%, at 18,768.10, and the AIM All-Share was 0.2% higher at 920.26.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.3% at 11,870.47, while the Cboe UK 250 also was up 0.3% at 16,758.07. The Cboe UK Small Companies was marginally higher at 11,319.84.Coming up Friday is the US Labor Department's jobs report for January at 1330 GMT."We have few doubts labour demand remained strong in January, but the chance of a repeat of December's 312,000 payroll gain is slim," said Pantheon Macroeconomics Chief Economist Ian Shepherdson."It's true businesses appear to be searching for huge numbers of people, but it's also true since mid-2017 they haven't been able to find as many as they'd like," Shepherdson continued."The difference between our composite hiring index and the actual payroll numbers narrowed in December, but one month proves nothing. Moreover, at least some of the surge in job growth between November and December, perhaps most of it, probably can be attributed to the swing from a much colder-than-usual survey week to a warmer-than-usual week."On the London Stock Exchange, TalkTalk Telecom fell 9.1%, the worst performing mid-cap stock, after it said earnings for its current financial year are set to miss analyst consensus.Looking to its year ending March, TalkTalk said its underlying business in on track with "significant" year-on-year headline profit growth expected.It is guiding for headline earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation of GBP245 million to GBP250 million, from GBP197 million a year prior. This is below consensus, however, of GBP259 million.Earnings will be hit between GBP10 million to GBP15 million due to accounting changes, investment and mix in the Fibre segment.TalkTalk is confident on "strong" earnings growth in its year ending March 2020, and should meet market expectations of GBP271 million.In the nine months to December, TalkTalk has added 148,000 net customers to its broadband services, with guidance for its entire year ending March "in excess" of 150,000. Third quarter customer growth was 44,000, from 37,000 in the same period a year before, with double-digit growth achieved in both Consumer and Business-to-Business.Overall, third quarter revenue increased 2.9% year-on-year excluding carrier and off-net to GBP386 million. Headline on-net revenue has risen 4.3% to GBP316 million.Larger peer BT Group was 1.5% lower early on Friday in a read-across. Also in the FTSE 100 index, Glencore was 1.6% lower as it reported strong increases in production in 2018, with copper, cobalt and nickel output all rising by double-digits.Own-sourced copper production was up 11% in 2018 to 1.5 million tonnes, which mainly reflected the restart of Katanga's processing operations in late 2017. Copper sales in 2018 were around 22,000 tonnes lower than production due to timing of shipments, Glencore added.Cobalt production jumped 54% to 14,800 tonnes, which the miner said mainly related to the Katanga mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Own-sourced nickel production of 123,800 tonnes was up 13% on last year, while attributable ferrochrome production of 1.6 million tonnes was roughly the same as last year.Intertek was 1.6% lower as Jefferies cut its rating to Hold from Buy for the company's stock. SSE was 0.3% higher as it confirmed it has sold its 49.9% stake in the Stronelairg and Dunmaglass wind farms to FTSE 250 member Greencoat UK Wind and a "major" UK pension fund.SSE will receive GBP635 million from the sale, and will use GBP200 million to fund a buyback from shareholders. The rest will be used to service debt.Greencoat UK Wind will be paying GBP452 million, with the pension fund paying the rest. The energy investor will raise GBP131 million in a placing with investors at 127 pence a share, with proceeds to be used to repay or reduce future drawdowns of its credit facility.Greencoat UK Wind was 1.4% lower early on in the FTSE 250. Also losing out in the mid-cap index was Close Brothers, down 2.2%, after Citigroup cut its rating for the stock to Sell. Euromoney Institutional Investor was 0.7% higher as it reported a solid first quarter, with revenue falling to GBP92.6 million from GBP100.8 million in the three months to December year-on-year on the back of a sale.Underlying revenue grew 1%, while underlying subscription revenue also increased 1%.Euromoney has left its outlook for its full year unchanged, and added its cash position is strong and its strategy overall is going well.Ferrexpo was 4.0% higher. The iron ore pellet company has gained 34% in the past week following a surge in iron ore prices following the Brumadinho dam disaster in Brazil a week ago. Elsewhere, advertiser M&C Saatchi was 6.7% higher as it expects results in line with expectations for 2018, with organic growth beating sector averages. The company also expects further "good" progress n 2018, with a solid start to the year made.M&C Saatchi has also sold its 25% stake in media agency Walker Media for GBP25 million, with funds to be used "to fund future growth".With a deadline for closing trade negotiations a month away, US President Donald Trump sat down with a high-ranking Chinese delegation at the White House on Thursday, in an attempt to advance a deal and stave off a slew of new tariffs.Trump, speaking after two days of intense talks between negotiating teams, said a final deal can only be reached when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in February, though there is not yet a fixed date.The US has already raised tariffs on USD250 billion worth of Chinese imports, and Beijing has retaliated. If no deal is reached on March 1, the US will up the tariffs on USD200 billion worth of goods, from 10% to 25%, which could roil global markets.Some of the outstanding issues involve Trump's concerns over the US trade deficit with China and Beijing's rules on market access and intellectual property, effectively meaning Washington wants significant changes to China's economic model.In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended mostly higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending 0.1% lower, the S&P 500 up 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.4%.In the UK, the 650 members of the UK Parliament's main elected house, the Commons, are expected to give up a scheduled one-week holiday next month to allow more time to debate Brexit-related legislation, the government said on Thursday.Andrea Leadsom, Prime Minister Theresa May's leader in the Commons, said the Conservative government had "no plans to bring forward a motion to agree dates for the February recess," which had been scheduled from February 18-22.She said Parliament might "need to continue to sit to make progress on the key business before it," following Tuesday's narrow majority in support of May's plan to negotiate changes to the Brexit withdrawal agreement."I think our constituents would expect the house to continue to make progress at this important time," Leadsom said.The pound was lower, quoted at USD1.3102 early Friday, compared to USD1.3137 at the close Thursday.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.1% and down 0.1% respecitvely. Japan and the EU launched the world's largest open trade zone Friday, covering about a third of the global economy.Its participants said the massive deal stands as a rebuke to protectionist threats, notably from President Trump. It will cover around 635 million people."Europe and Japan are sending a message to the world about the future of open and fair trade," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement."Our agreement shows that trade is about more than quotas and tariffs, or millions and billions," he added. "It is about values, principles and fairness."The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed 0.1% higher on Friday. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 1.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended marginally lower.Overnight, China's manufacturing PMI for January slipped to 48.3 from 49.7 in December. The reading was the lowest since February 2016.Japan also released a manufacturing PMI reading, showing the manufacturing sector continued to expand in January, albeit at a slower pace, with a manufacturing PMI score of 50.3.That's down from 52.6 in December, although it remains above the line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.Still to come on Friday are more manufacturing PMIs, from Italy at 0845 GMT, France at 0850 GMT, Germany at 0855 GMT, the eurozone at 0900 GMT, and UK at 0930 GMT.