LONDON MARKET OPEN: Barratt Shareholders Gain, Interserve's Wiped Out

LONDON (Alliance News) - London stocks got off to a slow start on Wednesday, taking a pause after Tuesday's impressive rally. Barratt Developments was among the best performers in the FTSE 100 after a strong set of interim results, while Centrica fell after a broker rating downgrade and GlaxoSmithKline shares declined ahead of its annual results release later in the day.The FTSE 100 was 8.29 points lower, or 0.1%, at 7,169.08 in early trade. The FTSE 250 was down just 3.17 points at 18,992.85, and the AIM All-Share was down 0.1% at 923.83.The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.1% at 12,173.08, while the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 16,936.92 and the Cboe UK Small Companies flat at 11,234.05.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were both 0.2% lower in early dealings.In London, Barratt Developments rose 1.8% after the housebuilder reported a double-digit rise in half-year profit.Revenue for the six months to December 31 rose 7.2% to GBP2.13 billion from GBP1.99 billion a year ago, as completions rose 4.1% to 7,622. Pretax profit jumped 19% year-on-year to GBP408.0 million as the company's gross margin improved by 200 basis points to 22.6%.The home builder raised its interim dividend by 12% to 9.6p.The FTSE 100 constituent said trading is in line with expectations and it is "confident" in achieving a "good financial and operational performance" in its current financial year.Barratt said it intends to pay a special return of GBP175 million in November 2019, as previously announced, and to demonstrate management's confidence it has proposed to pay a further GBP175 million to shareholders in November 2020.Vodafone was up 1.4% after Merrill Lynch raised the telecommunications stock to Buy from Neutral.Centrica was down 2.9% after RPC slashed its rating on the British Gas parent to Underperform from Outperform.GlaxoSmithKline shares were 1.3% lower ahead of the release of the pharmaceutical giant's annual results at 1200 GMT.Analysts are expecting GlaxoSmithKline's profit to more than double in 2018, the final year before its consumer healthcare division begins to break away. According to company-compiled consensus, analysts expect Glaxo's pretax profit to be GBP7.90 billion, over twice the GBP3.53 billion profit generated the year before. Revenue is forecast at GBP30.56 billion, a modest rise from GBP30.19 billion in 2017.In the FTSE 250, Victrex was down 4.0% after saying it had a weaker start to its financial year, though it has seen a pick-up in recent months. The high performance polymer firm said first-quarter revenue was down 18% on last year at GBP64.1 million, with sales volumes of 822 tonnes down 22% year-on-year."Pleasingly, January and February saw some initial improvement, although given our Q1 performance, the first half is expected to be much weaker overall, compared to the prior year. Our expectations for the second half are unchanged, with new projects and reduced headwinds supporting our assumptions," said Chief Executive Jakob Sigurdsson.Having fallen as much as 16% immediately after the open, Interserve shares were up 6.7% in morning trade after the struggling support services firm reached a deal to cut its debt.Interserve said it has agreed a deleveraging plan in principle with its lenders, bonding providers and the pension trustee, which is expected to result in the firm's net debt being reduced to GBP275 million. This will be done through the issue of GBP480 million in fresh Interserve equity.Interserve currently has a market capitalisation of GBP24 million, meaning existing shareholders face massive dilution. The stock is down 80% in the past 12 months.The new Interserve equity will be provisionally placed with existing lenders and subject to "claw back in full" by existing shareholders through a fully pre-emptive open offer."Whilst Interserve's objective remains to implement a fully consensual transaction, Interserve is also actively preparing alternative plans to ensure the proposed transaction can be implemented in the event that shareholder approval is not forthcoming," the company noted.Separately, Coltrane Master Fund has requisitioned a general meeting of Interserve, in which it has proposed the removal of Glyn Barker, Mark Whiteling, Russell King, Anne Fahy, Nick Salmon, Gareth Edwards, Dougie Sutherland and Nicholas Pollard as directors of Interserve.Coltrane does, however, continue to support Chief Executive Debbie White and is not seeking her removal. White is the only member of the Interserve board that Coltrane is not looking to remove.In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed closed up 0.1%. Financial markets in China and Hong Kong were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday. US President Donald Trump said he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam on February 27-28 for their second summit. "As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula," he told Congress in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.In the speech, he also hailed the country's economy while honing in on his signature issues of illegal immigration and a wall on the border with Mexico during his State of the Union address.In a response to Trump's speech, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the president of "fear-mongering and manufacturing a crisis at the border".Trump's insistence on the wall led to a partial government shutdown in December and January, and funding again runs out on February 15, with no deal in sight.In the economic calendar on Wednesday is the US trade balance at 1330 GMT.