LONDON MARKET OPEN: Cobham And AstraZeneca Early Gainers; Focus On ECB

(Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 edged into the green early Thursday as a boost for AstraZeneca and Compass just about managed to outweigh Sage's slump. The FTSE 250, meanwhile, was lifted as Cobham shares shot up 35% after the defence firm agreed to a GBP4 billion takeover. Focus in the day ahead lies in Frankfurt as the European Central Bank announces its latest monetary policy decision, with markets braced for the bank to tee up an interest rate cut in September.The large-cap FTSE 100 index was 4.64 points higher, or up 0.1%, at 7,506.10 early Thursday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 64.72 points, or 0.3%, at 19,852.50, while the AIM All-Share was 0.5% higher at 930.13.The Cboe UK 100 index was flat at 12,723.93. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.2% at 17,724.11, while the Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.2% at 11,033.66.In Paris, the CAC 40 was up 0.8% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.3%.Focus on Thursday lies on the ECB's latest monetary policy decision, with markets anticipating a dovish tilt ahead of a rate cut in the autumn."While the ECB is likely to stay on hold this week (though the chance of a pre-emptive cut today is non-negligible), we are looking for a dovish message," said Commerzbank.Commerzbank continued: "In particular, we expect (a) the ECB to change the forward guidance and signal upcoming cuts (in September and potentially beyond), thus cementing the markets' dovish expectations; and (b) President Draghi to deliver a dovish press conference, with a potential hint at QE."The ECB announces its monetary policy decision at 1245 BST before a press conference with ECB President Mario Draghi is held.Elsewhere, the economic events calendar on Thursday has US durable goods data at 1330 BST.In the UK, Boris Johnson will preside over his first meeting of his new Cabinet after a brutal cull of Theresa May's top team.Within hours of taking office on Wednesday, the new prime minister moved to stamp his authority, putting Brexiteers into key Cabinet posts as he vowed to take Britain out of the EU by the October 31 deadline.Following Cabinet, Johnson will address MPs for the first time as prime minister in a Commons statement, expected to be long on optimism, setting out his plans for government.The most high profile casualty of Johnson's cull was his defeated leadership rival Jeremy Hunt, after he refused to accept a demotion from the Foreign Office.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.3%.At the top of the FTSE 100 was AstraZeneca, up 5.9%, as traders welcomed the drugmaker's product sales guidance upgrade.First half product sales were up 12%, or 17% at constant currencies, to USD11.18 billion. This benefited from acceleration in second-quarter product sales to USD5.72 billion, up 14% year-on-year.Total revenue was up 9% to USD11.31 billion, with core operating profit shooting up 39% to USD3.01 billion. Reported pretax profit increased to USD899 million from USD786 million."The momentum generated last year continued into the first half, consolidating AstraZeneca's return to growth based on the strength of our new medicines," said Chief Executive Pascal Soriot."Accompanying earnings growth this year, we are pleased to upgrade our Product Sales guidance and we are committed to working on our operating leverage and driving cash generation over the long term," he added.Astra now expects product sales in 2019 to increase by a "low double-digit percentage". Prior to this, the company had seen growth in the high single-digits. The FTSE 100 constituent reiterated its core earnings per share guidance.Astra will pay out a flat interim dividend of USD0.90 per share.Compass shares advanced 1.9% after the contract caterer said it expects full-year organic growth at the top of its guided range.In the third quarter ended June 30, Compass achieved organic growth of 6.3%, driven by a strong revenue performance in North America and and improvement in the Rest of World. In the nine months to June 30, organic revenue growth was 6.5%.As a result, Compass expects to report annual organic revenue at the top end of its 4% to 6% guided range. At the same time, the group's margin is expected to be in line with a year ago.Anglo American was up 1.8% after the miner hiked its interim payout after strong earnings growth and has also declared a bonus return to shareholders via a buyback.Anglo American has boosted its interim dividend for the six months to June by 27% on the year before, reaching 62 US cents per share. Anglo American's buyback will be made in two USD500 million tranches, starting immediately, and finishing by the end of March 2020.Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation for the first half of 2019 rose 19% to USD5.45 billion, with revenue climbing 8% to USD14.77 billion. Attributable free cash flow, however, dipped 17% to USD1.33 billion. At the bottom of the blue-chips was Sage, down 7.8% amid a mixed outlook. The accounting software firm said it expects recurring revenue in the current financial year to slightly exceed guidance. However, the combined decline in software and software related services and processing revenue will be slightly sharper than that seen in the first nine months.For the three months to June 30, total organic revenue was up 5.3% to GBP476 million, up 5.9% to GBP1.42 billion in the first nine months of the financial year. Recurring revenue was up 11% to GBP405 million in the quarter, and up 11% to GBP1.18 billion in the year-to-date.Software and software related services, or SSRS, revenue slipped 16% to GBP195 million in the first nine months, reflecting a focus on driving high-quality subscription revenue, as well as some underperformance in X3 licences and services. The combined decline in SSRS and processing revenue in the first nine months was 13.0%."We remain encouraged by the progress made in recurring revenue in the first nine months of FY19, reflecting Sage's focus on high-quality subscription and recurring revenue as we continue the transition to becoming a great SaaS company," said Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Howell."We expect full year FY19 recurring revenue growth to slightly exceed guidance of 8-9% and the combined decline in SSRS and processing revenue to be slightly greater than the decline seen in the first nine months of the year. We expect organic operating profit margin to be at the lower end of the guided range of 23-25%," he said.FTSE 250-listed Cobham surged 35% to 166.00 pence after the defence firm agreed a GBP4 billion buyout. AI Convoy Bidco - an indirect subsidiary of funds managed by private equity investor Advent International Corp - has agreed to pay 165p per Cobham share in cash. This represents a 34% premium to Cobham's closing price of 123p on Tuesday, and a 50% premium to the three month volume weighted average price of 110p.Cobham directors intend to recommend unanimously that shareholders vote in favour of the deal. The deal was first reported by the Financial Times.At the end of the index, meanwhile, was Metro Bank, down 19%.After the market close on Wednesday, the challenger bank reported a sharp drop in interim pretax profit amid market challenging conditions and said it is to embark on a search to find a new chair.For the six months to June 30, the company reported a rise in total underlying revenue of GBP216.7 million, up 14% from GBP189.8 million the year before. However, statutory pretax profit declined 84% to GBP3.4 million from GBP20.8 million last year and underlying pretax profit fell 44% to GBP13.6 million from GBP24.1 million. In a separate announcement, the bank said it has started the search to find a new chair to replace US billionaire Vernon Hill, who founded Metro Bank in 2010. Metro Bank did not set a timetable for Hill resigning as chair and said he would remain a non-executive director and president of the bank.The company has been under pressure to reform its governance since it suffered a highly-publicised accounting blunder at the start of the year.Compared to this time a year ago, the stock is down a staggering 89%.