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LONDON (Alliance News) - Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group, BG Group and BP reported third-quarter earnings Tuesday, and all except BP have seen their shares fall as they offered little in the way of cheer.

Standard Chartered reported a 16% drop in third-quarter pretax profit, citing higher losses on loans gone bad and increased expenses. The Asia-focused bank also expects underlying profit in the second half to be lower than the same period last year, partly due to a higher UK bank levy, regulatory and restructuring costs.

It is the worst-performing stock on the FTSE 100, down over 9%, after some analysts downgraded recommendations on the stock and warned of revenue downgrades, saying there was little in the bank's outlook that suggested things would get better any time soon.

Lloyds Banking Group, meanwhile, said it swung to a third-quarter pretax profit, as strong underlying growth more than offset a new GBP900 million charge to cover the payment protection insurance mis-selling scandal. It also detailed new strategy plans, including cutting 9,000 jobs and closing 150 branches net over the next three years, as it continues to invest in its online and mobile banking services.

However, analysts remain negative on the stock, fearing the bank will have to continue to bolster its balance sheet in the wake of stress tests showing it wasn't far from the minimum capital position requirements under adverse senarios. That will delay its planned return to paying dividends, the analysts say. Its shares are down 2.4%.

Lloyds Chief Financial Officer George Culmer told journalists that he still hopes the bank will be in a position to pay a dividend in respect of the current financial year.

BG Group is also amongst the worst performers on the FTSE 100, after it reported a drop in its underlying earnings in the third quarter, and said its exploration and production guidance remains at the low end of its forecast range.

The company's third-quarter E&P production was 569 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day, at the lower end of the 590-630 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day range, reflecting continuing issues in Egypt and lower revenue entitlement from production sharing contracts in Kazakhstan.

BP shares were faring better after its third quarter earnings beat market expectations, even though it reported a drop in third-quarter earnings, as it was hit by the recent fall in oil prices and as it booked a much smaller profit from its investment in Russia's Rosneft as that company felt the effect of US and EU sanctions.

It said Rosneft had been hit hard by the depreciation of the rouble against the US dollar - which followed the crisis in Ukraine and the resulting imposition of sanctions against Russian businesses and individuals, including Rosneft - as well as lower Urals oil prices and associated duty tax lag effects.

BP's underlying replacement cost profit, its preferred measure of profit as it excludes non-operating items and fair value accounting effects, fell to USD3.0 billion in the third quarter, from USD3.7 billion a year earlier, as lower oil prices more than offset higher production and gas prices.

However, the decline in profits in its upstream production and exploration unit wasn't as bad as analysts had feared, as underlying gas and oil production excluding Russia grew by 4.1% compared with a year earlier.

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Markets: UK stocks are holding on to early gains, with mining stocks providing some support while the banking sector weighs on indices for the second consecutive day. The dollar has just taken a hit against the pound and euro after weaker-than-expected US durable goods orders.

US stock futures are pointing to a slightly higher start on Wall Street, with the DJIA, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all set to open 0.4% higher. Twitter is down about 13% in pre-market trading after its third-quarter results late Monday showed it lagging behind Facebook in terms of user number growth. Facebook reports later.

FTSE 100: up 0.5% at 6,394.83
FTSE 250: up 0.5% at 15,115.80
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.4% at 709.89
GBP-USD: up at 1.6162
EUR-USD: up at 1.2746
GOLD: up at USD1,233.20 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD85.92 a barrel
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Other Top UK Corporate News
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Spanish energy group Compañía Española de Petróleos confirmed it was holding talks with Salamander Energy over a possible takeover of the company, a day after shares in the London-listed oil company surged higher after it said it was holding talks with two possible suitors. CEPSA on Tuesday confirmed it was holding talks with Salamander about a possible takeover bid and also said Jynwel Capital also was involved in its bid. It said there was no certainty any offer would be made and said its bid would be in cash.
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Synthomer warned it expects lower profit in the full year and said earnings could be lower still if economic developments in Europe continue to deteriorate. "At current run rates and given the current demand environment in Europe, the board now expects full-year profit before tax to be slightly below current consensus" of pretax profit of GBP87.8 million, the company said. "We are cautious about performance in Europe given recent economic developments, and should this impact demand further than currently anticipated in the fourth quarter, then profit before tax is likely to be around the lower end of the current consensus range," currently GBP81.3 million to GBP90.3 million.
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NMC Health said its revenue rose in the third quarter on the back of strong performances from its Healthcare and Distribution arms and said it would reshuffle its executive team, with its chief operating officer departing, its chief financial officer moving to be deputy chief executive, and its deputy chief financial officer making the step up. Group revenue for the United Arab Emirates-focused healthcare company reached USD161.2 million in the third quarter to the end of September, up from USD136.5 million a year earlier. Chief Operating Officer Binay Shetty is stepping down from his role at the end of the year. Prasanth Manghat, currently chief financial officer, will take on the newly-created role of deputy chief executive from January 1 and will be replaced by Suresh Krishnamoorthy, currently the deputy chief financial officer.
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AIM Movers
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Minco shares have jumped after it found multiple intersections of sulphide mineralisation at the Buchans site in Newfoundland in Canada, confirming the extension of the sulphide horizons at the site. Frontier Resources International is doing well after it said it is in active discussions with potential joint venture partners on its projects and is seeing encouraging interest from the industry. Ilika is up after it said it has started succession planning for a new chairman after Jack Boyer said he intends to stand down after ten years in the role. It also said Meggitt Chief Technology Officer Keith Jackson has joined its board as a non-executive director. Transense Technologies is another gainer after its Translogik subsidiary's US partner launched the Opti-Tread Premium portable car tyre audit system. Hummingbird Resources is up after it said it has produced some of the highest grade drill results it has ever produced after infill and extension drill results from four pits within the Yanfolila project in Mali. Ferrum Crescent is down after it said that it had continued planning its bankable feasibility study for its Moonlight iron ore project, but it didn't give any detail on how its rights issue is progressing. Castleton Technology is also down after it said it is pursuing talks with a number of potential acquisition targets and would finance any cash element of an acquisition with an equity placing. It also said it knows no reason for the rise in its share price over the last week.
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Top Economics And General
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UK house prices declined for the first time in six months in September, data from Land Registry showed. House prices dropped 0.2% in September from August, when prices were up 1.1%. This was the first decline since March. On a yearly basis, house prices advanced 7.2% after rising 8.3% in August. The average house prices in England and Wales totaled GBP 177,299.
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Business confidence in Italy improved unexpectedly in October, survey data from the statistical office Istat showed. The business confidence index rose to 96 in October from 95.5 in September. Economists had expected the index to fall to 95. The assessment on order books improved while production expectations and assessment on inventories remained stable.
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France and Italy moved Monday to calm EU concerns over their 2015 budget plans, saying that they would tighten their financial belts further. The EU is currently assessing draft budgets submitted by eurozone countries, under a system meant to spot financial trouble early on. Both Paris and Rome have been warned that their plans would prove problematic under the EU's strict budget discipline rules. Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said that his government had decided to "adopt additional measures for 2015 in order to strengthen the fiscal effort already envisaged in Italy's draft budgetary plan." France's finance minister, Michel Sapin, wrote to the commission that Paris plans to cut its structural deficit by a total of at least 0.5 percentage point, thanks to lower-than-expected interest rates and new measures against tax fraud. The savings would amount to around EUR3.6 billion, French media reported.
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Profits of Chinese industrial firms rebounded in September, a report from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Industrial profits rebounded by 0.4% year-over-year in September after the 0.6% drop in August.
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Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said quantitative and qualitative easing has been exerting its intended effects and the Japan economy has been on a path that suggests that the 2% inflation will be achieved as expected. "Inflation expectations have been rising on the whole and this development has been influencing wage and price formation," Kuroda said in statement presented before the Committee on Financial Affairs, House of Councillors.
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Retail sales in Japan jumped 2.3% on year in September, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said - worth JPY11.242 trillion. That was sharply higher than forecasts for an increase of 0.8% following the 1.2% gain in August. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, retail sales climbed 2.7% - beating forecasts for a gain of 0.9% following the 1.9% jump in August.
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Russia said that it will recognize upcoming elections in separatist-held entities in eastern Ukraine, opening another confrontation with the West. "We expect that the elections will take place as agreed and we will surely recognize their results," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on his ministry's website. Lavrov added that the November 2 votes in the self-declared "people's republics" of Luhansk and Donetsk will be "important to legitimize their governments."
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held a first round of coalition talks Monday after early results showed that pro-Western parties had won the country's parliamentary elections. Poroshenko met with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of the western city of Lviv, presidential spokesman Svyatoslav Tseholko said. The president's Poroshenko Bloc party and Yatsenyuk's People's Front party both scored around 21%, according to preliminary figures released after 70% of votes were counted.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times GMT)

12:55 US Redbook index
13:00 US S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
14:00 US Consumer Confidence
14:00 US Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index
23:50 Japan Industrial Production
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Wednesday's Key UK Corporate Events

JZ Capital Partners - Half Year Results
Braemar Shipping Services - Half Year Results
Stagecoach Group - Trading statement
Next - Interim Management Statement
Standard Life - Trading statement
Antofagasta - Q3 Production Report
CSR - Q3 Results
Johnston Press - Interim Management Statement
Tissue Regenix Group - Half Year Results
Redefine International - Full Year Results
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Wednesday's Key Economic Events (all times GMT)

07:45 France Consumer Confidence
08:30 UK Mortgage Approvals
09:30 UK Consumer Credit
11:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
14:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
18:00 US Fed Interest Rate Decision
18:00 US Fed's Monetary Policy Statement
23:50 Japan Foreign bond/stock investment
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