LONDON MARKET OPEN: Ashtead Shares Rise After Impressive First Quarter

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks opened higher Wednesday, clawing back some of the heavy losses seen on Tuesday, with Ashtead Group one of the best performers in the FTSE 100 after reporting strong first-quarter results.

The FTSE 100 traded up 0.5% at 6,086.82, the FTSE 250 was up 0.4% at 16,909.95 and the AIM All-Share was flat at 730.40.

In Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris traded up 0.8% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.8% as well.

Ahead of the long weekend in China to celebrate the 70th anniversary of WWII Victory Day, Asian equities were lower. The Japanese Nikkei closed down 0.4%, the Hang Seng was down 1.3%, and the Shanghai Composite was down 0.2%. Stocks had traded much lower earlier but recovered some of their losses throughout the session.

The Shanghai market is closed Thursday and Friday, while Hong Kong is closed Thursday only.

On the London Stock Exchange, Ashtead traded up 5.3% after it said its pretax profit and revenue both surged higher in the first quarter of its financial year and said its full-year results look set to meet its expectations.

The industrial equipment rental company said pretax profit rose 23% in the quarter to the end of July to GBP155.4 million from GBP117.5 million a year earlier, as its revenue rose to GBP618.6 million from GBP457.9 million, driven by a rise in its rental revenue to GBP539.6 million from GBP417.7 million.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals is another strong performer in the blue chip index up 5.4% at 2,346.00 pence, after Barclays raised its its price target on the company to 2,760.00p from 2,050.00p according to traders.

Oil related stocks are amongst the few fallers in the FTSE 100, with Royal Dutch Shell 'B' down 0.5%, and BG Group down 0.1%. Oil prices declined sharply on Tuesday following weak economic data from China, giving up some of its strong weekend gains. At the London open, Brent oil traded at USD48.80 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate was at USD44.47 a barrel.

In the FTSE 250, Halfords Group was the biggest faller, down 7.7%. The car and bicycle parter retailer said its cycling sales have declined so far in the second quarter and will be below expectations for the period, though trading elsewhere in the business remains robust.

Halfords said its cycling sales in the eight weeks from July 4 to August 28 were down 11% on a like-for-like basis against tough comparatives and will now be below its expectations for the second quarter. The "disappointing" performance was driven by mainstream bikes and associated parts and accessories, which Halfords said it considers to be a market-driven issue resulting from higher levels of discounting and poor weather conditions which have deterred cyclists.

Diploma was down 5.0% after it said its revenue growth in the first nine months was held back by the slowdown in the oil and gas industry and sluggish European industrial markets and said its underlying operating margin will take a hit.

The technical products and services company said its revenue for the nine months to the end of September is expected to rise by around 9.0%, driven primarily by acquisitions but offset slightly by translational currency effects. But the group said the issues it has faced so far in its current financial year have continued to be an issue and said its underlying revenue growth, stripping out acquisitions and currency effects, will be around 1.0%.

Temporary power company Aggreko said it has struck a deal to acquire the majority of the assets owned by Canada's ICS Group Inc for CAD37.0 million.

Aggreko said the acquisition of the company, which provides mobile temperature control services in the Canadian market, will give it a presence in the North American heater market and will expand its operations into new North American locations. The company's shares were up 2.3%.

In the AIM All-Share, SpaceandPeople was one of the best performers, up 12%. The marketing company said it has secured an exclusive deal to promote brands across all Network Rail stations in the UK for five years. The agency said it now holds the exclusive rights to promote brands in Network Rail stations under the deal. No financial details were disclosed.

Meanwhile, Empyrean Energy traded down 8.0% after it said production from its flagship SugarLoaf AMI project in Texas in the US fell in the second quarter of 2015, but the amount of reserves at the project has substantially increased.

Still ahead in the economic calendar, there is the UK construction PMI at 0930 BST, before the eurozone producer price index at 1000 BST. US ADP employment is released at 1315 BST, while nonfarm productivity and unit labour costs are both released at 1330 BST. Later in the afternoon, US factory orders are at 1500 BST and Energy Information Administration crude oil stocks are at 1530 BST.

After the close of the London stock market, the changes of the September FTSE quarterly index review will be announced. Engineering company Weir Group is expected to drop into the FTSE 250, to be replaced by Berkeley Group Holdings.

By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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