WPP Share News (WPP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London closed higher on Friday, amid optimism over US-China trade negotiations, while WPP ended in the green showing signs its turnaround plan is underway.The FTSE 100 index was up 32.00 points, or 0.5%, at 7,106.73, ending the week down 1.0%. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was up 218.30 points, or 1.1%, at 19,399.65, ending the week up 0.7%.The AIM All-Share index was up 6.48 points, or 0.7% at 915.82, ending the week up 0.6%.The Cboe UK 100 index closed up 0.2% at 12,058.23, while the Cboe UK 250 closed up 1.0% at 17,318.38. The Cboe UK Small Companies closed up 0.1% at 11,138.54.In Paris the CAC 40 ended up 0.5%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 0.8%. "Stocks in Europe finished the week on a positive note. A growing sense of optimism surrounding US-China trade has lifted stocks. Yesterday, we heard from a few influential individuals on the US side, Steven Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow, both issued upbeat statements, but more work needs to be done," CMC Markets analyst David Madden said. In the FTSE 100, WPP ended as the best performer, up 4.9% as the advertising firm pressed ahead with its turnaround strategy and delivered upbeat guidance.In 2018, pretax profit narrowed 31% to GBP1.46 billion from GBP2.11 billion the year prior. On a constant currency basis, profit dropped 28%.Revenue fell 1.3% to GBP15.60 billion from GBP15.80 billion the year before, but was up 0.8% on a like-for-like basis. Billings, meanwhile, rose 3.3% to GBP55.80 billion from GBP55.59 billion the year prior, up 3.2% on a like-for-like basis.Like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs fell by 0.4% to GBP12.83 billion. Like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs means net sales, which exclude cost of sales returns, allowances and discounts. "Our results for 2018 are at the upper end of the guidance we provided in October, with like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs down 0.4%," WPP Chief Executive Officer Mark Read said.WPP proposed to hold its final dividend per share at 37.3 pence, also keeping its 60.0 pence final dividend flat on the year before."WPP is undergoing a transformation that'll hopefully see it shed significant levels of debt, and dispose of several non-core divisions, meaning it emerges as a simpler business with a stronger balance sheet. Holding the dividend at 60p during the next few years would mean investors get a handsome yield while they wait, but markets are tough at the moment and turning around a supertanker like WPP takes time," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst George Salmon.In 2019, the FTSE 100-listed firm expects like-for-like revenue - excluding pass through costs - to be down between 1.5% and 2.0%. Headline operating margins are also expected to be around 1.0 margin points lower than the 15.3% reported in 2018.Liberum analysts Ian Whittaker and Harry Read explained the "hit to operating margins looks less than would have been feared" for 2019.London Stock Exchange Group closed up 3.7% after the stock exchange operator reported a strong 2018 performance and hiked its payout.LSE proposed a final dividend of 43.2p, 16% higher than the year before, taking its total dividend to 60.4p, a 17% increase on the 51.6p distributed in 2017.LSE reported pretax profit rose by 27% to GBP685.0 million from GBP541.0 million in 2017, with gross profit increasing in line with analyst consensus to GBP1.91 billion compared to GBP1.74 billion in 2017.Total revenue grew by 7.9% to GBP1.91 billion from GBP1.77 billion in 2017, marginally ahead of analyst consensus. Income also increased by 9.2% and was marginally ahead of consensus at GBP2.14 billion.At the other end of the large cap index, RELX ended the worst performer, down 6.9% after the University of California said it would cancel its multi-million pound contract to subscribe to journals published by the Elsevier.UC on Thursday said RELX's business model blocked free access to academic knowledge. Elsevier is the publishing arm of the Anglo-Dutch information and analytics firm and publishes almost half-a-million academic articles every year and UC said it was satisfied to keep paying its the substantial subscription fee so it could continue to access them.However, UC said that after months of negotiations, talks broke down as Elsevier refused to cut a package deal which would provide a break on subscription fees and make all articles published by UC authors immediately free for readers worldwide."The UC system accounts for nearly 10% of all US Research published and while there have been examples of publishing contracts being cancelled before by the UC (Informa has theirs cancelled several years ago), the fact this has happened when Elsevier is having disputes with other universities will raise questions," Liberum's Whitaker noted. In the FTSE 250, Jupiter Fund Management was the best performer, ended up 7.1% despite the asset manager suffering from large fund outflows and a negative investment performance which led to a fall in its assets under management.At the end of 2018, Jupiter's assets under management fell 15% to GBP42.7 billion compared to GBP50.2 billion at the end of 2017. Jupiter blamed market and exchange rate movements for a negative GBP2.9 investment performance. Jupiter's proposed a 2018 total payout 13% lower at 28.5 pence each from the 32.6p distributed in 2017.The company's dividend policy sees it pay out 50% of its underlying earnings, leading it to declare an unchanged 17.1p ordinary 2018 dividend per share. Its special dividend, however, was trimmed a quarter to 11.4p in 2018 from 15.5p in 2017.Shore Capital explained it had "expected a much bigger cut" to the special dividend after Jupiter had flagged that regulatory changes may have impacted its cash surplus. Shore added the firm no longer expected the changes to have a "material impact on the regulatory surplus."At the other end of the midcap index, Coats Group ended the worst performer, down 6.1% after the industrial thread maker said its annual profit decreased slightly despite a rise in revenue due to higher administrative costs.For 2018, the company posted pretax profit of USD122.8 million compared to USD129.5 million a year ago. The slip in profitability was mainly due to higher administrative expense, rising to USD214.9 million from USD202.0 million a year ago.Revenue, meanwhile, rose 4% year-on-year to USD1.42 billion from USD1.36 billion. By business, Apparel & Footwear revenue was flat year-on-year while Performance Materials sales rose by 20% to USD332 million.The pound was quoted at USD1.3222 at the London equities close, down from USD1.3286 at the close Thursday.UK manufacturing sector activity fell to a four-month low in February, according to the latest survey report from IHS Markit.The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit/CIPS UK Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 52.0 in February, in line with economist views and down from a revised reading of 52.6 in January. The January reading was originally reported as 52.8.Any reading above 50 suggests expansion in activity.The UK manufacturing PMI reading is currently at its second-lowest level since July 2016 - the month after the EU referendum, Markit said."We think there's an increased risk that manufacturers find their day-to-day operations affected by the threat of no deal. For instance, it may become increasingly tricky/costly to arrange cross-border shipments. According to the supply chain publication Loadstar, 85% of the lorries that operate on the major Dover-Calais shipping route are EU-based. Given that there is a real risk of lorries getting stuck in the UK in the event of no-deal, there's very limited incentive for these haulage firms to take UK-bound jobs in days running up to March 29." said analysts at ING.The euro was marginally lower, quoted at USD1.1379 at the European equities close, against USD1.1395 late Thursday.Eurozone manufacturing activity deteriorated in February with the sector shrinking for the first time since June 2013, survey results from IHS Markit revealed.The eurozone manufacturing PMI fell to 49.3 in February from 50.5 registered in January. This was a bit better than IHS Markit's flash estimate for February of 49.2, but still was below the line of 50 that divides expansion from contraction.Meanwhile, eurozone inflation accelerated in February, while core price growth eased, and the unemployment rate held steady in January, data from Eurostat showed.The flash harmonized inflation for February was 1.5%, which was higher than January's 1.4%. The latest rate was in line with economists' expectations.Meanwhile, the core inflation rate that excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, slowed to 1% in February from 1.1% in January. Economists had expected the rate to remain unchanged.Separately, the agency reported that the euro area unemployment data was steady at 7.8% in January after December's figure was revised down from 7.9%. Economists had expected the rate to remain unchanged at December's original 7.9%.Stocks in New York were higher at the London equities close amid continued optimism about US-China trade talks following upbeat comments from White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow.Kudlow said the US and China are making "fantastic" progress in their trade negotiations, suggesting the world's two largest economies are on the cusp of an "historic" agreement.The DJIA was up 0.3%, the S&P 500 index up 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.5%.On the economic front, data published by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index increased 0.1% on a monthly basis. Meanwhile, core PCE, the US Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of inflation, rose 0.2% and 1.9% on a monthly and yearly basis respectively, matching analysts' estimates."Domestic pricing and wage growth remains manageable, showing that Fed policy is appropriate given economic conditions. We expect the Fed to pause rate hikes through the end of this year. However, we could see an additional rate hike, likely in the second half of this year, if economic growth picks up and inflation accelerates too quickly," said analysts at LPL Research. Gold was quoted at USD1,303.55 an ounce at the London equities close, down from USD1,315.52 late Thursday, on the back of a stronger dollar. Brent oil was quoted at USD65.02 a barrel at the London equities close, down from USD66.40 at the close Thursday.Concerns over surging US output and global growth worries have offset optimism over output cuts by oil cartel OPEC. There are signs of tightening in the oil market, with Venezuela's oil exports plunging 40% to around 920,000 barrels per day since the US government slapped sanctions against its petroleum industry in late January.The drop in supply comes following OPEC efforts to withhold around 1.2 million barrels per day of supply since the start of the year. On the flip side, it is expected that growth concerns and surging US supply may slow the speed of a recovery in oil prices.A light economic events calendar on Monday has eurozone producer prices at 1000 GMT. The UK corporate calendar on Monday has full year results from valve actuators manufacturer Rotork, speciality chemicals company Synthomer, engineer Senior and geotechnical contractor Keller Group.