LONDON MARKET OPEN: Stocks Down; Investors Shrug Off Shell Profit Drop

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened lower on Thursday following a fall in US equity markets overnight as the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold.On the London Stock Exchange, gains by Smith & Nephew and Royal Dutch Shell - London biggest stock - were not enough to see the FTSE 100 open in the green.The large-cap index was down 26.92 points, or 0.3%, at 7,358.06 early Thursday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 77.59 points, or 0.3%, at 19,736.15, while the AIM All-Share was down 0.1% at 968.84.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.4% at 12,473.96. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.2% at 17,731.05. The Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.1% at 11,718.98.In Paris the CAC 40 was down 0.7% and the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 0.6%. In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.6%, S&P 500 down 0.8% and Nasdaq Composite ending 0.6% lower.As widely expected, the US Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday - after the European equities close but while New York was still trading - that it has decided to leave interest rates unchanged.The Fed maintained the target range for the federal funds rate at 2.25% to 2.50% for the third consecutive meeting.The US central bank said information received since its previous meeting in March showed economic activity rose at a solid rate.The Fed said it continues to view sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labour market conditions, and inflation near its symmetric 2% objective as the most likely outcomes. Nonetheless, the central bank reiterated it will be patient as it determines future adjustments to interest rates due to global economic and financial developments and muted inflation.In his post-monetary policy meeting press conference, Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed sees "transitory factors" contributing to recent low inflation readings"This slippage in US markets has seen European markets open slightly lower this morning with attention on a slew of earnings announcements and today's Bank of England rate meeting," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson. On the London Stock Exchange, Smith & Nephew was the best blue-chip performer, up 3.2% after the medical devices maker said it made a strong start to 2019.For the first quarter to the end of March, revenue was up 4.4% on an underlying basis to USD1.20 billion from USD1.19 billion in the first quarter last year. The company said all three global franchises accelerated, delivering growth ahead of 2018 as it started to benefit from its new commercial model.Looking forward, Smith & Nephew said it is confident that underlying revenue growth will be in the upper half of the guidance range of 2.5% to 3.5%. In addition, the expected trading profit margin remains unchanged in the range of 22.8% to 23.2%, the company added. Royal Dutch Shell reported a drop in first quarter earnings due to lower oil prices and launched the next stage of its share buyback programme. Shell 'A' was up 1.2% and Shell 'B' shares were up 1.1%, the second and third best blue-chip performers respectively. For the three months to the end of March, current cost of supply earnings, excluding items, declined by 2% year-on-year to USD5.43 billion from GBP5.52 billion. CCS earnings attributable to shareholders, excluding items, also fell by 2% to USD5.30 billion, while including items it dropped by 7% to USD5.29 billion."This is a robust performance from Shell. At first sight the numbers were pretty flat, but forecasts were for a much weaker outcome, so the market should be pleased with the results Shell's delivered," said Hargreaves Lansdown's Steve Clayton. Shell launched the next tranche of its share buyback programme, with the maximum consideration to be USD2.75 billion for the period up to July 29. The maximum amount of shares that can be bought back by Shell is 618.3 million.Coca-Cola HBC was up 1.3% after the soft drinks bottler enjoyed a strong first-quarter and declared a special dividend. In the first-quarter, the company posted currency-neutral revenue growth of 4.7%, with foreign exchange neutral growth in established markets of 1.5%, developing markets of 6.5%, and emerging markets of 6.9%. Coca-Cola HBC declared special dividend of EUR2.00 per share, worth EUR730 million, which reflects "successive years of strong performance, confidence in the future and our commitment to creating value for our shareholders".At the other end of the large cap index, Paddy Power Betfair was the worst performer, down 4.7% after the bookmaker For the first quarter to March 31, revenue grew 17% year-on-year, driven by excellent growth in both Australia and the US. In its Sports betting unit the company saw strong revenue growth in Sportsbet and FanDuel, however its Online betting performance affected by unfavourable sports results in UK and Ireland, it added. Gambling companies benefit when the favourite to win loses a match or race, as most customers would have backed the favourite - ergo reducing payouts. Revenue was also adversely affected by the temporary suspension of UK horse-racing fixtures in February - due to equine flu - which the company said "negated the benefit of soft comparatives" from weather-related horse-racing cancellations in the prior year.The pound was quoted at USD1.3072 Thursday, marginally lower than USD1.3090 at the London equities close Wednesday, ahead of the Bank of England's interest rate announcement.The BoE will announce its latest monetary policy decision, alongside the release of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting minutes, at midday on Thursday.The bank's quarterly inflation report is due alongside the rate decision in what is known as 'Super Thursday'. There will be a press conference with BoE Governor Mark Carney held at 1230 BST.The economic events calendar on Thursday has manufacturing PMI data from Italy, France, Germany and the eurozone at 0845 BST, 0850 BST, 0855 BST and 0900 BST. At 0930 BST there is the UK construction PMI reading.In Asia, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.8%. Financial markets in China are closed for a second day of the Labour Day holiday, while Japanese markets remain closed as Golden Week continues.