LONDON MARKET OPEN: SSE, WPP, Sports Direct Fall; UK Retail Sales Due

LONDON (Alliance News) - The large-cap FTSE 100 index was cautiously higher early Thursday ahead of UK retail sales due later in the morning.The mid-cap FTSE 250, however, was lower as declines for Babcock International and Sports Direct International offset a strong showing by Moneysupermarket.com.The FTSE 100 was up 0.1%, or 5.30 points, at 7,681.58 early Thursday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 0.1%, or 12.36 points lower, at 20,971.84. The AIM All-Share index was down 0.2% at 1,095.31.The Cboe UK 100 was flat at 13,014.98, the Cboe UK 250 was also flat at 19,108.40, while the Cboe UK Small Companies was, again, flat at 12,550.94.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3027 early Thursday, down compared to USD1.3058 at the London equities close on Wednesday.UK retail sales are at 0930 BST, following on from a disappointing inflation reading on Wednesday and in-line wage growth the day before.Retail sales are seen rising 3.9% in June on an annual basis, in line with last month's reading, and are set to rise 0.4% month-on-month, slowing from 1.3% in May.However, Lloyds Banking said it sees a 1% month-on-month fall in June, coming after large gains the previous two months."Even if the June forecast is correct, sales will still have risen by almost 2% in Q2 which would be its fastest quarterly rate for more than two years," Lloyds analysts noted.In mainland Europe early Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were both down 0.3%.SSE was down 3.1% after the energy provider said the start of its new financial year has been marked by "lower-than-expected output of renewable energy" and "persistently high gas prices", in addition to dry, warm weather.Weather in the UK during the period - being 1.5 degrees centigrade warmer than the thirty-year average - led to average domestic gas demand being 10% lower than planned."All of this has resulted in a higher cost of energy, lower-than-expected output of electricity from renewable sources, and lower volumes of energy being consumed," said SSE.The company said this has hurt its adjusted operating profit in the first quarter by around GBP80 million, and could potentially hit its full-year results.WPP was 3.1% lower in a negative read-across after French peer Publicis Groupe on Thursday said net revenue for the first half of the year fell 8.2% to EUR4.28 billion, with organic growth declining 0.4% in the period.Publicis Groupe was trading 8.2% lower in Paris early Thursday.Babock International fell 7.5%. The defence outsourcer said, ahead of its annual general meeting later on Thursday, it expects to achieve its underlying earnings guidance for the year.Revenue expectations for the Aviation sector and the Nuclear sector remain unchanged, though defence revenue is now expected to be "temporarily impacted" by the restructuring of the Defence Equipment & Support organisation, which has created the new Submarine Delivery Agency."Following this restructuring, a review of programme spend timings is contributing to slightly slower than expected UK activity levels in our Marine and Land sectors. As a result of both the positive portfolio actions and the delays in defence activity, the Group now expects low single digit underlying revenue growth for the full year," said Babcock. Joining Babcock at the bottom of the FTSE 250 was Sports Direct International as it shed 6.4%.The sporting goods retailer said revenue rose in its recently-ended financial year, but profit dropped due to a GBP85.4 million hit related to its investment in department store Debenhams.Sports Direct said revenue rose 3.5% in the year to April 29 to GBP3.36 billion, but reported pretax profit plummeted 73% to GBP77.5 million. On an underlying basis, pretax profit climbed 35% to GBP152.9 million.The company said the profit dive was largely due to a GBP85.4 million hit following a reduction in value of Debenhams. During the year, Sports Direct increased its holding in Debenhams to 29.7%.The best performer among London mid-caps was Moneysupermarket.com, rising 11%.The price comparison site said revenue for the six months to June 30 rose 5% to GBP173.7 million, with pretax profit climbing to GBP51.7 million from GBP49.5 million. Moneysupermarket.com lifted its interim dividend to 2.95p from 2.84p last year."Our trading is on track and our Reinvent strategy to help people save more money across more household bills, is moving ahead. In particular, our expanding product engineering hub is making it easier for customers to switch," said Chief Executive Mark Lewis.Capita gained 3.6% after the outsourcer said it has won a contract worth GBP30 million over an initial five-year term with Southern Water, with an option to extend for a further three years.Elsewhere on the London Main Market, WH Ireland fell 6.2% after it said its annual loss widened in a challenging period, but with a "much clearer path to profitability" now, as it also announced the departure of its chief executive officer.Revenue rose to GBP36.4 million in the 16 months to March 31, up 7.5% on the GBP25.4 million reported for the 12 months to November 30. The company's pretax loss widened to GBP3.7 million from GBP3.2 million.Separately, the company said Chief Executive Richard Killingbeck will step down from his role on July 31 in order to pursue "other opportunities". Phillip Wale has been hired as his replacement, effective August 1, having been chief executive of Panmure Gordon & Co between 2012 and 2016, and head of fixed income (Europe) for Cantor Fitzgerald Europe for the past two years.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 0.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.2% in late trade.In the economic calendar on Thursday, continuing and initial jobless claims in the US are due at 1330 BST, with the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing survey at the same time.