(Alliance News) - A bumper day for UK corporate news was unable to put investors in a good mood before the Bank of England's latest interest-rate decision, with a slip in interim earnings from oil major Royal Dutch Shell dragging the FTSE 100 index into the red early on Thursday.The large-cap index was 24.59 points, or 0.3%, lower at 7,562.19 early Thursday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 20.86 points, or 0.1%, at 19,645.66, while the AIM All-Share was down 0.1% at 930.57.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.5% at 12,815.92. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.2% at 17,505.83, while the Cboe UK Small Companies was up 0.2% at 11,048.94.In Paris, the CAC 40 stock index was down 0.3% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was 0.1% higher in early trade."Markets are under pressure at the open on Thursday, as Europe takes the lead from the US and dives on a hawkish rate cut from the Federal Reserve," said Craig Erlam at Oanda.The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday lowered the target range for interest rates by a quarter point - the first cut in just over a decade - bringing the benchmark rate down to 2.00% to 2.25%.The rate cut was not enough to please President Donald Trump, who criticized Powell for not going further. "As usual, Powell let us down," Trump said. Some traders had hoped the Fed would cut interest rates by a chunkier 50 basis points. "While Powell did indicate that this isn't necessarily a 'one and done' situation, his characterization of the cut as a 'mid-cycle adjustment' sent a very different message than investors wanted to hear," Erlam explained. And, he added, the BoE is "next in the firing line". "Super Thursday is usually a major event when we learn a lot about the central bank's outlook for the economy and interest rates but this time in three months, the UK may be experiencing the first hours of a no-deal Brexit reality, which makes the job of forecasting outrageously difficult," the Oanda analyst said.No change is expected from the BoE when the UK central bank releases its latest monetary policy decision at midday, though attention will be paid to Governor Mark Carney at the following press conference, at 1230 BST, for clues as to what the bank could do if the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal. Sterling was quoted at USD1.2116 early Thursday ahead of the decision, down from USD1.2222 at the London equities close on Wednesday.In London, the FTSE 100's largest constituent, Shell, was the worst performer in early trade, with 'A' and 'B' shares both down 4.1% after the oil major posted a decline in interim earnings. Current cost of supply earnings attributable to shareholders excluding items was down 13% in the first half to USD8.76 billion. Cash flow from operating operating activities was up 4% to USD19.66 billion.For the second quarter alone, CCS earnings attributable to shareholders excluding items was down 26% year-on-year to USD3.46 billion, which Shell said reflected lower realised oil, gas and LNG prices, weaker realised chemicals and refining margins as well as higher provisions, though this was all partly offset by improved production.Total production available for sale in the half rose 1% on a year before to 3.67 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. In the second quarter alone, this was up 4% to 3.58 million.Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden commented: "We have delivered good cash flow performance, despite earnings volatility, in a quarter that has seen challenging macroeconomic conditions in refining and chemicals as well as lower gas prices.""The resilience of our Upstream and customer-facing businesses and their ability to generate cash support the delivery of our 2020 outlook, which remains unchanged," he added.London Stock Exchange Group was the best performer, meanwhile, up 3.3%. LSE Group confirmed it has agreed to buy financial markets data provider Refinitiv for an enterprise value of USD27 billion in an all-share deal, as it also revealed a slight increase in interim profit.The deal is with a consortium including investment funds affiliated with Blackstone as well as Thomson Reuters. Refinitiv is currently 55% owned by the Blackstone funds and 45% by Thomson Reuters. The transaction will result in the current owners of Refinitiv ultimately holding around a 37% stake in the LSE Group, though less than 30% of its voting rights.Together, LSE Group and Refinitiv generated a combined annual revenue of over GBP6 billion in 2018, which would have made the combined business the largest listed global financial markets infrastructure provider by revenue last year.Separately, LSE Group released its interim results on Thursday, saying they showed a "strong" performance despite challenging market conditions.Total revenue was up 7% to GBP1.02 billion in the six months to June 30 with total income up 8% to GBP1.14 billion. FTSE Russell index revenue was up 9% to GBP315 million, while Post Trade revenue at LCH was up 12% to GBP266 million.LSE Group pretax profit rose slightly to GBP363 million from GBP360 million a year before. Adjusted operating profit was up 11% to GBP533 million.Barclays rose 1.0% as the lender put on a "resilient" performance in the first half of 2019.Pretax profit nearly doubled to GBP3.01 billion from GBP1.66 billion a year ago, though stripping out litigation and conduct charges, was down to GBP3.1 billion from GBP3.7 billion.Net interest income was GBP4.62 billion, up from GBP4.38 billion a year before, though total income fell to GBP9.86 billion from GBP10.36 billion on lower net trading income, net fee and commission income and net investment income.The income environment in the first half was "challenging", the bank said, and as a result Barclays is focused on net cost reductions in the second half. Barclays expects to reduce costs for 2019 to below the GBP13.6 billion low-end of previous cost guidance.Outside of the BoE, the economic events calendar on Thursday has manufacturing PMI readings from Germany at 0855 BST, the eurozone at 0900 BST and the UK at 0930 BST.Already released, Chinese manufacturing improved marginally in July but still contracted, according to the Caixin China General Manufacturing Index.The seasonally adjusted Purchasing Managers Index in China rose to 49.9 in July from 49.4 in June. A figure below 50 indicates shrinkage of the sector, while one above means expansion. Manufacturers in Japan continued to face a difficult business environment in July, index data also showed on Thursday, with the country's PMI score coming in at 49.4 in July from 49.3 in June.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended up 0.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.8%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is 0.9% lower in late trade.
Barclays (BARC)
