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LONDON (Alliance News) - London share prices opened higher Tuesday, amid a raft of blue-chip corporate reporting, while UK and US inflation readings will take over attention later this morning and in the afternoon.
The FTSE 100 of large-caps was up 0.8%, or 48.34 points, at 6,199.74. Only 11 FTSE 100 stocks were in the red. The FTSE 250 was adding 0.4% at 16,773.46 and the AIM All-Share was up 0.1% at 724.94.
Taylor Wimpey shares were up 4.3%, the best blue-chip performer. The housebuilder said the UK new-build housing market remains "very positive", as it upgraded its dividend policy to pay at least GBP150.0 million in ordinary dividends per year, and increased its medium-term financial targets, resulting in a plan to pay out GBP1.30 billion in dividends between 2016 and 2018.
The housebuilder said it has a strong order book position, with over 70% sold for 2016 private completions as at the end of April 2016, and said this positions it well for the remainder of the year.
DCC was another gainer, up 2.2%. The sales, marketing, distribution and business support company said it expects to deliver another year of profitable growth ahead as it reported a 47% rise in profit in its last financial year, beating market expectations and prompting a large increase in its full-year dividend.
The group said its adjusted earnings per share rose by over 27% to 257.1 pence in the year to the end of March from 202.2p in the previous year. This easily beat analysts expectations of 251.0p. Operating profit in the year rose by 36% to GBP300.5 million from GBP221.7 million, also ahead of analyst expectations of GB296.0 million.
Vodafone Group shares were adding 1.4%. The telecommunications giant reported annual results that fell just shy of market expectations but guided for earnings growth in the year ahead.
Vodafone reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of GBP11.61 billion for its full financial year that ended in March, below the range of GBP11.7 billion to GBP12.0 billion that the company had guided and down from the GBP11.9 billion it reported the year before.
Vodafone proposed a final dividend of 7.77 pence per share, taking its total dividend for the year to 11.45p, up from the 11.22p it paid in the previous year.
For the year ahead, Vodafone expects organic growth in Ebitda of between 3% and 6%. The group will switch to reporting in euros for the current year to end-March 2017, and will also declare dividends in euros for the year ahead.
Land Securities Group was up 1.7%. The real estate development trust saw its pretax profit almost halve due to a reduction in the valuation surplus, but it hiked its dividend on continued leasing momentum in its development programme and longer-lease terms.
Land Securities reported a total business return of 13.4% for the year to March 31, with basic net asset value per share rising to 1,482.00 pence from 1,343.00p a year earlier and adjusted diluted NAV rising to 1,434.00p from 1,293.00p.
Pretax profit fell to GBP1.34 billion from GBP2.42 billion a year earlier, despite a 10% increase in revenue profit to GBP362.1 million coming from strong net rental income, after the valuation surplus fell to GBP907.4 million, from GBP2.04 billion a year earlier.
However, Land Securities, which is focused on the London development market and prime retail properties, raised its dividend for the year to 35.00p pence, from 31.85p a year earlier, as it hiked its final dividend to 10.55p from 8.15p.
In the FTSE 250, Lookers was the best mid-cap performer, up 8.3%. The motor retail and aftersales service group said it achieved a strong performance in the three months ended March 31 with a particularly good performance in March.
Total gross profit from new cars increased by 23% year-on-year in the motor division, or 5% on a like-for-like basis, while used cars gross profit also rose by 23%, or 7% on a like-for-like basis. The aftersales business, meanwhile, saw gross profit rise by 25%, also 7% on a like-for-like basis.
In Europe, the Frankfurt market reopens after the Whit Monday holiday, with the DAX 30 index up 0.8%. In Paris, the CAC 40 was adding 0.5%.
In Asia on Tuesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended up 1.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite finished down 0.3, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.6%.
In the economic calendar Tuesday, the main focus in the morning will be the UK consumer, retail and producer price indices, due at 0930 BST.
"Since February, headline inflation has exhibited slightly more resilience than would appear to have been priced in, in fact since November last year CPI inflation has risen consistently on an annualised basis from -0.1% to 0.5% in March, and could well hit 0.6% when the April CPI numbers are released this morning," said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.
Core inflation prices have also nearly doubled in the last 12 months, to 1.5% in March, with expectations for an unchanged reading for April.
The European Union trade balance follows at 1000 BST, with the German Bundesbank monthly report due at 1100 BST. US data, including for building permits, housing starts and consumer prices, follow at 1330 BST, with American Petroleum Institute weekly crude oil stocks to come much later at 2130 BST.
By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com
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