Taylor Wimpey Share News (TW.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened higher on Wednesday, tracking strong gains in the US overnight, but housebuilders were going against the positive trend following a profit warning from Crest Nicholson. The FTSE 100 index was up 0.3%, or 15.91 points, at 7,074.00. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 0.2% or 41.73 points at 19,191.60. The AIM All-Share index was up 1.0%, or 10.06 points, at 1,007.28.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.2% at 11,998.70, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.3% at 17,404.38, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.1% at 11,666.58.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 1.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.5%. Hong Kong is closed for the Chung Yeung Festival.In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended significantly higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.2%, S&P 500 up 2.2% and Nasdaq Composite up 2.9%.US stocks surged to their biggest gain in six months amid positive earnings releases from big name firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Johnson & Johnson.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were both up 0.4% early Wednesday.On the London Stock Exchange, Pearson was the best blue-chip performer at the open, up 5.3% after the education publisher said it is on track to meet its 2018 expectations after nine months of trading.Pearson said total revenues were flat year-on-year to the nine months ended September.Pearson said revenue at US Higher Education Courseware division is down, but this was offset by the rest of the company growing in aggregate.The company's Online Program Management division saw "good" revenue growth in the first nine months of the year, with global course registrations up 13%. This drove a 2% rise in revenue in Pearson's Core segment. The "strong" growth seen in its Pearson Test of English Academic, rising 25%, also aided the segment's growth.Rentokil Initial was up 2.8% after JPMorgan double upgraded the pest control company to Overweight from Underweight. Conversely, housebuilders were weighing on the large cap index following Crest Nicholson's profit warning.Berkeley Group was down 2.6%, Taylor Wimpey was down 1.0% and Persimmon was down 1.6%.Barratt Developments was down 0.9% despite saying it is confident on delivering a "good financial and operating performance" in financial 2019 after making a "strong start to the year". Crest Nicholson was down 5.6% after the FTSE 250 housebuilder said Chief Financial Officer Robert Allen is stepping down and leaving the company, as it warned on profit amid challenging trading conditions and "political and economic" uncertainty. Crest Nicholson said sales have not risen during the traditionally stronger early Autumn selling season, with the market environment for new homes in London is more difficult than previously anticipated.As such, Crest Nicholson now expects annual pretax profit within a range of GBP170 million to GBP190 million. Crest Nicholson said by keeping up sales volumes its margin have been hurt, and is now expected to be lower than the previous guidance of 18%."The usual Autumn pick up in sales volumes has not been evident during September and October, with many customers putting off decisions to buy whilst current political and economic uncertainties persist," said Executive Chairman Stephen Stone. To combat this, the company is launching a new strategy that will focus on shareholder returns by prioritising cashflow and dividends, maximising value in its portfolio and improving operational efficiency.Still, the company remains committed to pay an ordinary dividend of 33 pence for financial 2018. It committed the same for financial 2019, subject to no material deterioration in market conditions.In response to the profit warning, broker Liberum cut Crest Nicholson to Hold from Buy, cutting its price target to 331 pence from 528p."The issue is the same as in previous warnings - a very tough market at higher price points, especially beyond the limits of Help to Buy, and problems completing sales where buyers also need to sell a house in the second hand market," said Shore Capital's Robin Hardy. Mediclinic International was the worst performer in the FTSE 250 index, down 12% after the private healthcare group said it saw a drop in earnings and revenue on a reported basis for the first half of its financial year.For the six months to the end of September, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, deprecation and amortisation on a reported basis were down by 8.0% at around GBP210 million from GBP231 million the year before.On AIM, ASOS was up 15% after the online fashion retailer said it made substantial progress in its recent financial year, as it saw revenue and profit jump.For the year ended August, the online fashion retailer posted pretax profit up by 28% to GBP102 million from GBP80 million the year before, as revenue increased 26% to GBP2.41 billion from GBP1.92 billion. Retail sales at group level was up 26% to GBP2.36 billion from GBP1.88 billion, with strong contributions both domestically in the UK and overseas. In addition, investors will be keeping watch over the European Council summit for potential developments over whether an exit deal can be struck by negotiators.UK Prime Minister Theresa May is to address EU leaders as she battles to keep her faltering hopes of securing a Brexit deal alive. May heads to Brussels for what had been billed as "the moment of truth" in the negotiations amid growing concerns the two sides will be unable to bridge the gap over the key issue of the Irish border.The meeting is the occasion when the leaders of the remaining 27 member states were supposed to give the green light for a special summit in November to finalise the terms of Britain's withdrawal. But after hastily arranged talks between the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab broke up on Sunday without agreement, the negotiations are once again deadlocked.European Council president Donald Tusk has warned that without new "concrete proposals" from the British to break the logjam over the so-called Irish border "backstop", further progress may be impossible.Sterling was down quoted at USD1.3165 ahead of UK inflation readings due at 0930 BST, from USD1.3207 at the London equities close on Tuesday.The economic events calendar on Wednesday also has eurozone inflation readings at 1000 BST. There are US housing starts figures at 1330 BST.In US corporate news later Wednesday aluminium producer Alcoa and equipment rentals firm United Rentals will report earnings after the market close in New York.Bank of England policymaker Ben Broadbent will speak at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC at 1800 BST. The Federal Open Market Committee's September meeting minutes will be released at 1900 BST.US President Donald Trump says the biggest threat to his presidency is the policy on interest rates set by the Federal Reserve, the US central bank."My biggest threat is the Fed," Trump said in an interview that aired Tuesday evening on Fox Business Network. He complained that the Fed "is raising rates too fast, and it's too independent".The Fed has hiked rates three times this year and is expected to put the federal funds rate up another notch in December in line with a course set last year. Additional rate increases are forecast for 2019 and 2020.