LONDON MARKET MIDDAY: FTSE 100 Edges Higher With Micro Focus Gaining

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London had given back some of their early gains by midday on Wednesday, though managed to remain in the green."The FTSE 100 has edged higher once more this morning, although the benchmark is potentially running into some resistance not far from its all-time high," said XTB chief market analyst David Cheetham.Rising in the FTSE 100 were Micro Focus International, Paddy Power Betfair, Mondi and Burberry. Centrica was slumped at the other end of the index along with BT, both due to broker rating downgrades.The FTSE 100 was up 0.1%, or 4.69 points, at 7,727.67 Wednesday midday, having hit an intraday high of 7,745.53 earlier in the session. The index's all-time high currently stands at 7,792.56, which was set in January of this year.The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 0.1% at midday, 14.40 points higher, at 20,799.32. The AIM All-Share index was flat at 1,082.70.The Cboe UK 100 index was flat at 13,114.87. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.1% at 19,032.67, and the Cboe UK Small Companies up 0.2% at 12,808.5.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 0.1% and up 0.2%, respectively.In data from the eurozone on Wednesday, figures showed inflation slowed well below the European Central Bank's 'below, but close to 2%' target.Inflation dipped to 1.2% in April from 1.3% in March, in line with the estimate published on May 3. On a monthly basis, the harmonized index of consumer prices gained 0.3% in April.Core inflation that excludes food, alcohol and tobacco, slowed to 0.7% from 1% a month ago, also in line with the estimate.The euro was quoted at USD1.1802 at midday, down from USD1.1864 at the market close on Tuesday.ECB President Mario Draghi will be speaking at 1300 BST in Frankfurt. Also in the economic calendar on Wednesday, there are US MBA mortgage applications at 1200 BST with housing starts at 1330 BST and industrial production at 1415 BST.Stocks in New York on Wednesday were pointed to a lower open, having finished firmly in the red on Tuesday. The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite were all pointed to open down 0.1% on Wednesday, having closed down 0.8%, 0.7% and 0.8% respectively on Tuesday.In US company news, Starbucks said it is planning to build 600 net new stores annually over the next five years in mainland China. This would will double the market's store count to 6,000 across 230 cities. Starbucks currently operates about 3,300 stores in 141 cities in China and employs 45,000. The company also announced plans to more than triple revenue and more than double operating income in China by the end of its 2022 financial year, relative to its 2017 earnings.In London at midday, Micro Focus International remained rooted to the top of the FTSE 100, up 8.9%. The company, which develops software products for security, management and governance, said revenue for the first half is expected to be better than previously guided.The company had predicted a 9% to 12% year-on-year drop in revenue for the six months to end-April, on a constant currency basis. Micro Focus said the first half performance includes an unusually large licence deal of USD40 million, which closed earlier than expected. Excluding the deal, the company's underlying revenue still is estimated towards the better end of the guidance range.Paddy Power Betfair was in second place, up 5.5% as it primes itself to take advantage of the recent US Supreme Court ruling in favour of legalised sports gambling. The bookmaker, noting press reports, on Wednesday confirmed it is in discussions regarding a potential combination of its US business and FanDuel to create a combined entity to target the prospective US sports betting market.FanDuel is a US-based fantasy sports site."Discussions are ongoing and there is no certainty as to whether agreement will be reached, or as to the terms or timing of any transaction," Paddy Power said.Mondi was 2.5% higher. The paper and packaging firm said underlying operating profit for its first quarter was EUR295.0 million, up 15% year-on-year and 6% quarter-on-quarter. Like-for-like sales volumes were "stable" year-on-year, with growth in Packaging Paper being offset by lower volumes in Uncoated Fine Paper due to a shutdown at its Richards Bay site in South Africa.Burberry was up 2.1% after a set of in-line results, which marked Marco Gobbetti's first as chief executive at the British fashion brand.For the year to March 31, Burberry's revenue declined 1% both at reported rates and constant currency to GBP2.73 billion, with comparable retail stores sales up 3%, as adjusted operating profit rose 2% at reported rates to GBP467 million."Whilst these are not results which shoot the lights out, Burberry will be pleased with its progress given the fact that it is in the early stages of its planned transformation," said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.At the bottom of the index was Centrica, down 4.2% as Morgan Stanley cut the British Gas parent to Underweight from Equal Weight.BT was down 2.1% as it also suffered from a broker rating downgrade, cut to Market Perform from Outperform by Bernstein.Also lower on Wednesday were housebuilders, suffering from a negative read-across after an update from peer Crest Nicholson.FTSE 250-listed Crest Nicholson was 13% lower at midday after it said "generally flat pricing" against a backdrop of continuing build-cost inflation means its operating margins for the full year are expected around 18%, at the bottom end of its 18% to 20% guided range."Sales at higher price points will continue to be impacted by a slow second-hand market and this is likely to restrain overall price growth in the near term. As a result, margins for next year are expected to be at a similar level to this year," Crest Nicholson said.For the six months to April 30, the housebuilder said unit completions rose 18% to 1,251 and forward sales stood at GBP441.7 million, up 6% on last year.Blue-chip housebuilding stocks such as Persimmon, Barratt Developments and Berkeley Group Holdings were 1.4%, 1.3%, and 0.6% lower at midday respectively.Back in the mid-cap index, Marston's was 6.6% lower as it swung to a loss for its first half despite double-digit growth in revenue, largely due to its GBP55 million acquisition of Charles Wells Brewing & Beer Business in May 2017.Pretax loss for the six months to the end of March was GBP13.4 million, sinking from a profit of GBP36.7 million for the same period the year before, due to accounting adjustments relating to the estate valuation and changes in the fair value of interest rate swaps, leading to exceptional items totalling GBP49.7 million for the period.Peer Mitchells & Butlers was down 6.2% after reporting a rise in like-for-like sales in the first half of its financial year, although profit fell.The FTSE 250-listed restaurant and pub operator, which owns the Harvester chain, won't pay an interim dividend but will assess a payout at the end of the financial year.For the 28 weeks ended April 14, Mitchells & Butlers reported a pretax profit of GBP69.0 million, down from GBP75.0 million the year before, due to higher operating costs and depreciation, amortisation and movements in the value of the pub operator's property portfolio. Revenue for the year edged up to GBP1.13 billion from GBP1.12 billion.Like-for-like sales rose by 1.6% for the first half of the year and up 1.4% for the 32 weeks to May 12. However, Mitchells & Butlers did note that the period was hit by poor weather, stating that like-for-like sales would have been up by 2.5% without the weather impact.Leading the FTSE 250 gainers was Homeserve, rising 7.9% after UBS raised the home repairs business to Buy from Neutral.Tullow Oil also gained after a broker upgrade, 3.3% higher at midday after Morgan Stanley lifted the stock to Overweight from Equal Weight.