LONDON MARKET PRE-OPEN: Persimmon Sees Rise In Half Year Earnings

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening lower on Tuesday with US-China trade talks in focus, as Persimmon reported an increased profit for the first half. IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open down 18.36 points at 7,572.90. The blue chip index closed up 0.4% at 7,591.26 on Monday. In early UK corporate news, miner BHP Billiton paid out to shareholders above its policy level, with annual profit rising though short of consensus.For the 12 months to June, BHP is paying a "record" final dividend of 63 US cents a share, 17 cents above its policy of paying 50% of underlying attributable profit.The total dividend for BHP's financial year was 118 cents, far higher than the 83 cents paid out a year earlier and above analyst consensus of a 116 cents return.BHP's pretax profit rose to USD14.75 billion from USD11.14 billion the prior year, while underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation was up 20% to USD23.18 billion.Housebuilder Persimmon said it saw a strong first half of 2018 reflecting its commitment to delivery of high quality growth.For the half year to the end of June, revenue rose 5% to GBP1.84 billion from GBP1.75 billion last year and pretax profit was up 13% to GBP516.3 million from GBP457.4 million last year. New home sales increased 4% to 8,072 from 7,794 last year - with an additional 278 new homes delivered in the period.Persimmon said it returned surplus capital to shareholders of 125 pence per share in March 2018, in addition to the payment of 110 pence per share paid in July. The company added that it remained committed to return surplus capital of at least 235 pence per share for the next two years ending 2020, and 110 pence per share in 2021."The group has a robust platform to continue to deliver successful outcomes based on its high quality land bank, strong forward sales, excellent financial position, and experienced management team. We believe we are well positioned to deliver further high quality, sustainable growth," said Chief Executive Jeff Fairburn.Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca said its non-small-cell lung carcinoma drug Tagrisso has been approved in Japan as a first line treatment. "Tagrisso is already approved in Japan for the treatment of patients with EGFR T790M mutation-positive inoperable or recurrent NSCLC that is resistant to existing 1st-line EGFR-inhibitor medicines. Today's approval moves the use of Tagrisso to the 1st-line setting, replacing older medicines which, given the high prevalence of the EGFR mutation in Japan, offers an important new treatment option for these patients," said Dave Fredrickson, head of its Oncology unit. Gold miner Polymetal International reported strong earnings on the back of solid operational delivery in the first half of the year.For the half year to the end of June, revenue was up 16% to USD789.0 million from USD683.0 million last year and net earnings were up 46% to USD175.0 million from USD120.0 million the year before. Gold sales in the first half were up 17% at 445,000 ounces, although silver was down 2% at 12.1 million ounces.Polymetal declared an interim dividend of 0.17 cents, up 21% from 0.14 cents paid last year. "We expect stronger production and free cash flow generation for the second half and remain focused on steadily progressing our further growth pipeline, including full ramp-up of Kyzyl, while generating meaningful dividends to our shareholders," said Chief Executive Vitaly Nesis.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is up 1.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.6%.Asian stock markets are higher following the modest gains overnight on Wall Street amid optimism over US-China trade talks. The dollar declined after a report from Reuters said that US President Donald Trump accused China, as well as Europe, of manipulating their currencies and also said he was "not thrilled" with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for raising interest rates.In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.4%, S&P 500 up 0.2% and Nasdaq Composite up 0.1%. The pound was up against the dollar quoted at USD1.2843 compared to USD1.2761 on Monday.Still to come in the economic calendar in Europe is UK public sector borrowing figures at 0930 BST.