LONDON MARKET OPEN: Centrica And BAE Sink After Results, Barclays Up

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London started Thursday's session on a soft note, with Centrica and BAE Systems among the worst performers in the FTSE 100 index of blue-chips after releasing their annual results.Meanwhile, Barclays was the top performer after it pledged to focus on shareholder returns.The FTSE 100 was 19.42 points lower, or 0.3%, at 7,209.20 early Thursday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 11.35 points, or 0.1%, at 19,190.68, though the AIM All-Share index was up 0.1% at 910.67.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.3% at 12,241.52, while the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 17,084.55 and the Cboe UK Small Companies flat at 11,198.50.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were flat and 0.3% higher respectively in early dealings. With less than a week until the issue of Brexit returns to be voted on in the House of Commons, UK Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay is holding EU withdrawal talks in Brussels as both sides signalled they are in a race against time to cut a workable deal.Barclay and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox are meeting EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Thursday after the UK Prime Minister Theresa May insisted progress is being made.Following a meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday, May issued a joint statement with the European Commission president in which both leaders acknowledged the "tight timescale".May is eager to get movement on the backstop issue before the Brexit issue returns to the Commons for a series of votes on February 27. The Commons showdown is expected to see backbench moves to try to get Article 50 extended, meaning the UK remains in the EU after its scheduled exit date of March 29.In London, Barclays was the best performer in the FTSE 100, up 3.7% as the lender raised its dividend and pledged a greater focus on returns to shareholders.Pretax profit for 2018 came in at GBP3.49 billion, slightly lower than the GBP3.54 billion achieved last year. This included litigation and conduct charges of GBP2.2 billion, which the bank said was principally related to a GBP1.4 billion settlement with the US Department of Justice.Excluding these charges, pretax profit for the year was up 20% on 2017 to GBP5.7 billion.Analysts had seen pretax profit at GBP5.83 billion.The lender declared a full-year dividend of 4.0 pence, bringing its total dividend to 6.5p. This is more than double the 3p paid out in respect of 2017."In 2018, based on our strong capital generation, Barclays restored the dividend to 6.5p and redeemed expensive preference shares dating from the financial crisis. This is excellent progress, but not sufficient," said Chief Executive James Staley."Going forward the principal calls on future earnings should now be returns to shareholders and investing to grow the business. We will use the strong capital generation of the bank to return a greater proportion of those earnings to shareholders by way of dividends and to supplement those dividends with additional returns, including share buybacks. I am optimistic for our prospects to do more in 2019 and beyond."RELX was in second among large-cap risers, up 1.6% as it reported revenue growth above consensus with strong improvement from its scientific, technical & medical and risk & analytics businesses. However, profit was flat due to higher expenses. Revenue increased 2.0% in 2018, hitting GBP7.49 billion versus GBP7.34 billion in 2017. The latest result was 1.8% ahead of company-compiled consensus for GBP7.36 billion. RELX's annual profit was flat in 2018 from the year before due to increased costs and expenses, with pretax unchanged at GBP1.72 billion.Centrica was slumped at the bottom of the FTSE 100, down 7.5% as it reported a "mixed" financial performance in 2018 against a "challenging external backdrop".Adjusted operating profit was up 12% to GBP1.39 billion, slightly below consensus of GBP1.41 billion but up from the GBP1.25 billion achieved in 2017.The energy supplier maintained its full-year dividend at 12.0p.In addition, Centrica said it will sell its North American Franchisee Home Services Business, Clockwork, for GBP230 million to Authority Brands, a home services franchise platform."The disposal of the Clockwork portfolio is aligned with our intention to drive channel and brand simplification across the group focusing on our owned channels and is the first part of our GBP500 million divestment programme of non-core assets we announced today," said Centrica Chief Executive Iain Conn.BAE Systems fell 5.0% as the defence firm posted a rise in annual profit despite revenue dipping. In 2018, pretax profit widened 14% to GBP1.22 billion from GBP1.07 billion the year prior. This was despite reported revenue falling 2.3% to GBP16.82 billion from GBP17.22 billion the year before, on a constant currency basis falling by 1%.Profit performance was helped by a sharper 3.3% fall in operating costs to GBP15.51 from GBP16.04 billion the year before.Intertek lost 3.1% after Berenberg downgraded the product testing and certification company to Hold from Buy.To come in the economic events calendar on Thursday are services PMI readings from Germany and the eurozone at 0830 GMT and 0900 GMT, respectively. In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.2%.