WPP Share News (WPP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were lower at midday on Friday on a busy day of company news, with Royal Bank of Scotland, Glencore and Just Eat weighing on the FTSE 100.The FTSE 100 index was down 14.94 points, or 0.2% at 7,419.19. The FTSE 250 was down 57.55 points, or 0.3% at 19,813.50, and the AIM All-Share was up just 0.20 points, at 965.45.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.2% at 12,582.72. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.3% at 17,739.51, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was up 0.1% at 11,633.82."The FTSE 100 is on the back foot, weighed down by corporate news from Royal Bank of Scotland and Just Eat. Although the government-owned bank reported better-than-expected first quarter profits the fact that they were significantly lower than last year pushed shares into a tailspin leading to a 5.3% decline. The worst hit part of the group was mortgage lending, with concerns over Brexit dampening consumers' appetite for big ticket new purchases. Just Eat, on the other hand, blamed warm weather in February and a later Easter for a decline in orders in the same quarter," said City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta. On the London Stock Exchange, WPP was the best blue chip performer, up 3.9% after the advertising firm said it is making good progress, despite a sluggish performance in North America.WPP's revenue for the first quarter of 2019 rose 0.9% at reported currency to GBP3.59 billion. Excluding currency movements, revenue was down 0.6%, and like-for-like it fell 1.3%. Minus pass-through costs, revenue declined 0.7%, or 2.3% constant currency, to GBP2.93 billion, and slipped 2.8% on like-for-like basis.Like-for-like revenue minus pass-through costs in North America fell 8.5%, making it WPP's weakest performing region, due to continued losses among automotive, pharmaceutical, and fast-moving consumer goods clients."Despite the paltry numbers, investors will be relieved to see things haven't got worse - expectations for the full year may not have improved, but they haven't gone the wrong way either." said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Sophie Lund-Yates.In addition, WPP is selling an undisclosed stake in market research business Kantar, with a high level of interest from "high quality" potential partners. "The final thing on everyone's mind is the sale of market research business, Kantar. It's a chunky business on WPP's books and its sale will help efforts to simplify the business. Following recent speculation the group might struggle to find a buyer, the group confirmed today that the sale process was in fact going well," Lund-Yates added. At the other end of the large cap index, Royal Bank of Scotland was the worst performer, down 4.5% after the state-backed lender reported a fall in first-quarter profit, hurt by intensifying competition and Brexit uncertainty.The bank's operating pretax profit for the three months to March end decreased 17% to GBP1.01 billion from GBP1.21 billion the year before. RBS's profit attributable to shareholders slipped 13% to GBP707 million. First quarter total income decreased 7.9% to GBP3.04 billion from GBP3.30 billion, with net-interest income decreasing 5.6% to GBP2.03 billion from GBP2.15 billion. RBS's CET1 ratio - a key measure of a bank's financial strength - at the end of March was 16.2%, down from 16.4% at the end of the first quarter a year ago.The bank - still 62% owned by the UK taxpayer - warned uncertainty over Brexit would likely delay borrowing by business customers, making growth more challenging.On Thursday, Ross McEwan said he is to step down as chief executive of RBS."RBS added a few more clouds to the general gloom, with a prominent note of caution on the potential for Brexit to disrupt performance in the year ahead, and the departure of CEO Ross McEwan both negative for investor sentiment," Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Nick Hyett noted. Glencore was down 3.5% after the miner late Thursday said it has been informed that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has launched an investigation into whether the commodities trader has violated certain provisions of the Commodities Exchange Act. The investigation is currently at an early stage and follows a similar scope to the ongoing investigation by the US Department of Justice. Glencore said it will cooperate with the Commission's investigation.Just Eat was down 3.2% after the online takeaway platform said it made a solid start to 2019, with international strength offsetting some headwinds in the UK. Orders in the UK in the three months to March rose 7.4% year-on-year to 31.9 million. However, Just Eat said UK growth was held back by a strong comparative the year before, unseasonably warm weather during February, and the Easter weekend falling during the second quarter. The UK accounts for around half of the company's total orders. Just Eat, which is under increased pressure from rivals Deliveroo and Uber Eats, said it expects to see an improvement in UK order growth during the rest of the current year.Oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and 'B' shares were down 1.5%, 1.1% and 0.9% respectively, tracking oil prices lower. Brent oil was quoted at USD72.90 a barrel at midday, down from USD75.00 at the London equities close Thursday. The North Sea benchmark had breached the USD75 mark for the first time in 2019 on Thursday. Oil prices retreated from 2019 highs amid concerns oil cartel OPEC may raise output to make up for a decline in exports from Iran.In the FTSE 250, Computacenter was the standout performer, up 18% after the IT services provider reported a better-than-expected first-quarter trading performance. The company, which provides computer services to public and private sector customers, also said that it remains on track to deliver on expectations for the year as a whole. Computacenter said that challenging economic conditions in the company's operating markets do not seem to be deterring customers from investing in technology. At group level, the company's revenue and profitability for the three months to March 31 were ahead of the comparative period on a like-for-like basis and before the positive impact of acquisitions. In the UK, Computacenter saw revenue growth despite a large one-off software licence deal in the comparative first quarter of 2018. In addition, UBS raised the stock to Buy from Neutral. At the other end of the midcaps, Ferrexpo was down 24% after the iron ore pellet producer said Deloitte has resigned as the company's auditor with immediate effect, amid a spat over potential links between the company's chief executive and a charity being probed for misuse of funds. The company, without giving any further explanation regarding the auditor's resignation, said it will provide further updates in due course. Ferrexpo disagreed with its auditor's conclusion of a link between Chief Executive and controlling shareholder Kostyantin Zhevago and Blooming Land Charity, which is being investigated for possible discrepancies in the use of funds. On Tuesday, Ferrexpo said an independent review committee found Blooming Land was not related to the company or its executive management. However, Deloitte was unable to reach the same conclusion.In European equities, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were both flat at midday. On the continent, Deutsche Bank was down 3.2% in Frankfurt after the German bank reported a sharp rise in first quarter income but saw a fall in profit in a "very challenging market environment". In the three months to March 31, the lender reported a 68% increase in net income to EUR201 million from EUR120 million the year before. Deutsche Bank recorded pretax profit of EUR292 million in the first quarter, down 32% from the EUR432 million recorded in the corresponding period a year earlier. The lender booked EUR604 million in bank levy charges in the quarter. The bank's total net revenue decreased 9.0% to EUR6.35 billion, with Deutsche's Corporate & Investment Bank seeing revenue slip 16% to EUR3.33 billion. The lender's Private & Commercial Bank saw revenue decrease 4.9% to EUR2.51 billion.On Thursday, Deutsche Bank and peer Commerzbank abandoned merger talks, saying the deal would have been too risky. The German banks had only entered formal merger talks last month. Commerzbank was up 2.4% in Frankfurt. In France, oil major Total reported its net income group share for the first-quarter rose to USD3.11 billion or USD1.16 per share from USD2.64 billion or USD0.99 per share in the prior year.However, adjusted net income group share declined 4% to USD2.76 billion from the prior year, reflecting the increase in the net cost of net debt compared to a year ago mainly due to the rise in US dollar interest rates. Adjusted earnings per share decreased by 6% to USD1.02, from USD1.09 in the prior year.Total shares were down 0.6% in Paris. The pound was quoted at USD1.2908 at midday, up from USD1.2897 at the London equities close Thursday. Stocks in New York were set for a mixed open ahead of US first-quarter GDP numbers at 1330 BST.The DJIA was called down 0.1%, the S&P 500 index flat and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.2%.Ahead in the US earnings calendar oil majors Chevron and Exxon Mobil reporting earnings before the market open in New York.