ULE.L Share News (ULE)

LONDON (Alliance News) - With a number of stocks going ex-dividend as well as losses for insurers and NMC Health, the FTSE 100 remained firmly in the red at midday on Thursday.To come is the European Central Bank's latest policy decision, due at 1245 GMT, followed by a press conference with ECB President Mario Draghi at 1330 GMT, in which he will set out the bank's latest macroeconomic forecasts. "We believe there are two key things to look out for from today's ECB meeting. The first is whether the time reference on the forward guidance for interest rates will be pushed out, perhaps to the end of the year," commented Lloyds Banking."The second focus is the imminent 'cliff effects' for banks reliant on ECB long-term liquidity support," Lloyds continued. "Banks need to replace such funding requirements by the middle of this year...Various options are being examined, including the duration and the interest rate of new loans, but full details will probably be announced in April."The FTSE 100 index was 31.12 points lower, or 0.4%, at 7,164.88. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 157.30 points, or 0.8%, at 19,202.01, while the AIM All-Share index was down 0.7% at 910.62.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.4% at 12,166.14, while the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.8% at 17,188.21, and the Cboe UK Small Companies down 0.3% at 11,131.52.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were both 0.5% lower.Prior to the ECB decision, Eurostat said economic growth in the bloc slowed in 2018 from last year. For 2018 as a whole, GDP grew by 1.8% in the euro area and 1.9% in the EU28, compared to a rise of 2.4% for both in 2017.Year-on-year, GDP rose by 1.1% in the euro area in the fourth quarter of 2018. This was slightly behind consensus cited by FXStreet of 1.2%, and compares to growth of 1.6% in the third quarter."The third estimate of eurozone GDP in the fourth quarter last year confirmed the economy grew at only a moderate pace, and with the latest data fairly weak the ECB is certain to announce lower forecasts later today. But we think they will remain too optimistic and we don't expect any major policy announcements," commented Jack Allen at Capital Economics. The euro was quoted at USD1.1311 at midday, flat compared to USD1.1318 late Wednesday.Wall Street is on course for a lower start on Thursday, with the Dow Jones seen down 0.3%, the S&P called 0.2% lower and the Nasdaq also set to slide 0.2%.A number of stocks were weighing on London's FTSE 100 on Thursday, including a slew of ex-dividends, insurers, and NMC Health. Private healthcare operator NMC was the worst performer in the index, slumping 8.6% despite posting a strong increase in profit for 2018. The United Arab Emirates-focused firm reported a 22% rise in pretax profit to USD256.9 million from USD210.4 million in 2017. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased by 38% to USD487.4 million from USD353.4 million the prior year, on revenue that grew 28% to USD2.06 billion from USD1.60 billion.NMC's Ebitda was just above group expectations reiterated in December, which guided the figure at USD480 million, as was revenue growth, which was expected to be 24%.However, looking ahead, NMC expects earnings growth to moderate in 2019. Ebitda is expected to rise between 18% to 20% in 2019, and revenue to grow by 22% to 24% from its 2018 figures.Among stocks to go ex-dividend on Thursday were miner Rio Tinto, down 7.4%, housebuilder Persimmon, down 6.0%, and steelmaker Evraz, down 5.0%.Rio Tinto was also knocked as Societe Generale downgraded its rating on the stock to Sell from Hold.Admiral shed 4.6% as it reported a rise in annual profit thanks to a strong performance from its core UK motor division on the UK governments regulatory rate changes.Admiral posted a 18% increase in pretax profit to GBP476.2 million compared to GBP403.5 million pretax profit recorded in 2017, and the figure was ahead of consensus of GBP445.8 million.The company's overall group pretax profit was "favourably impacted" by the change in the Ogden rate. Admiral estimates the change in rate added GBP120 million to GBP140 million in pretax profit to its UK Motor's business reserves. The group's combined ratio was 89.3%, worsened from 87.7% the year before. A ratio below 100% indicates the company is making underwriting profit, while a ratio above 100% means it is paying out more money in claims than it is receiving from premiums, so the lower the better.Aviva was 3.7% lower as it set out plans to curb its dividend growth rate in order to give new Chief Executive Maurice Tulloch flexibility to implement his strategic agenda. Aviva hiked its final dividend by 9.2% to 20.75 pence per share, leading to a 9.5% bump in its total dividend to 30.0p from 27.40p the year before.Moving forward, Aviva is moving to a "progressive" dividend policy from its current policy of targeting a payout of 50% of earnings per share. Aviva said the new policy will afford new Chief Executive Maurice Tulloch "greater flexibility" to implement his own strategy.Pretax profit slipped to GBP1.65 billion from GBP2.37 billion. The general insurer's operating profit increased 1.6% to GBP3.12 billion, slightly ahead of consensus GBP3.10 billion. Melrose Industries remained fixed atop the blue-chip index, up 3.1%, after its 2018 results managed to beat board expectations. Melrose posted revenue of GBP8.61 billion in 2018, well above the GBP2.09 billion reported in 2017, though its pretax loss widened to GBP550 million from GBP28 million year-on-year.This was mainly due to higher finance costs as well as restructuring, acquisition, and amortisation costs.Excluding its GKN acquisition, Melrose's adjusted operating profit was GBP847 million, from GBP279 million in 2017. FTSE 250-listed Ultra Electronics was up 9.9% at midday after being upgraded to Overweight from Neutral by JPMorgan. The defence firm was adding to Wednesday's 12% gain as it hiked its 2018 dividend following a "good" second half.