LONDON MARKET PRE-OPEN: Cola-Cola HBC Declares Special Dividend

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening in the red on Thursday, tracking US equity markets lower after the US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday and ahead of a Bank of England decision at midday.In early UK corporate news, Lloyds Banking reported flat first-quarter profit, Shell earnings were hurt by lower oil prices, Coca-Cola HBC made a strong start to the year and declared a special dividend, and Restaurant Group hired its new chief executive from GVC. IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 31.56 points lower at 7,353.70. The blue-chip index closed down 32.96 points, or 0.4% at 7,385.26 on Wednesday.Oil major Royal Dutch Shell said it saw a drop in earnings for the first quarter of 2019, due to lower oil prices and production in most of its segments.Also, Shell has declared 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.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. 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.Lloyds Banking Group reported a mixed first quarter, with profit flat but income slipping, but reaffirmed its 2019 financial targets.Lloyds's pretax profit was stable year-on-year at GBP1.60 billion but it suffered a decline in net interest income.The bank's net interest income decreased 3.8% to GBP3.08 billion from GBP3.17 billion in the corresponding period the year before. However, total net income increased 2.1% to GBP4.42 billion.Soft drinks bottler Coca-Cola HBC 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". "We have started the year well, delivering solid growth in revenues despite the impact of this year's late Easter. Volume growth accelerated compared to last year and our ongoing revenue growth management initiatives continue to deliver improvements in price/mix. This good start sets us up well to deliver on our plans and make 2019 another year in which we achieve FX-neutral revenue growth above our targeted range with another step up in margins," said Chief Executive Zoran Bogdanovic.Restaurant Group said it has hired GVC Holdings Co-Chief Operating Officer Andy Hornby as its new CEO, replacing Andy McCue who has decided to step down. The Wagamama and Frankie & Benny's restaurant chain owner said Hornby's start date will be announced in due course. Gambling firm GVC noted the announcement and said Hornby was instrumental in the growth of its Ladbrokes Coral business, having formerly been CEO of Coral.Ahead of its annual general meeting Rolls-Royce Group said it is trading is in-line with expectations and is confident in meeting underlying operating profit and free cash flow guidance of GBP700 million. The company said cash flow phasing is expected to have a strong second half bias with higher invoiced engine deliveries and planned inventory reductions in Civil Aerospace. It is also continuing to implement the fixes to improve the health of its Trent 1000 fleet."Our restructuring programme has continued to make progress as we aim to bring down commercial and administrative costs, improve our engineering efficiency and drive lasting culture change at Rolls-Royce. The completion of our disposal of the Commercial Marine business also represents an important milestone, with proceeds received in April. In summary, we remain on track for the full year and to deliver our longer-term aspirations," said CEO Warren East.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.London Capital Group's Jasper Lawler commented: "Basically, the market had gotten ahead of itself, pricing in a 65% chance of a rate cut. The Fed poured cold water on such expectations, forcing the market to reassess the likelihood of the Fed loosening monetary policy."Even as Jerome Powell was talking, market expectations of a cut declined, with a 50% probability of a cut now being priced in. This boosted the dollar. Stocks were less impressed as the prospect of tighter conditions saw investors pull out of equities."The pound was quoted at USD1.3051 early Thursday, marginally lower than USD1.3090 at the London equities close Wednesday, ahead of a Bank of England 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 0.6%. Financial markets in China are closed for a second day of the Labour Day holiday, while Japanese markets remain closed as Golden Week continues.