TOP NEWS: easyJet And Flybe Fly More Passengers But Not Aer Lingus

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Friday.
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COMPANIES
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Low-cost airlines easyJet PLC and Flybe Group PLC said they flew more passengers and filled more of the seats in their planes in recent weeks, but Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus Group PLC reported the opposite. EasyJet said it flew 5.1 million passengers in March, up from nearly 4.9 million in March 2013, while load factor, a measure of how many seats on its planes are filled, rose to 91.5%, from 90.5%. Flybe Group said passenger volumes were up 6% on the year to 1.6 million in the three months to the end of March, the fourth quarter of its financial year. Its load factor rose six percentage points to 70% as capacity was also reduced by 4% to 2.2 million seats. Irish airline Aer Lingus, meanwhile, said passenger numbers fell to 703,000 in March, from 757,000 a year earlier, with numbers down on both short-haul and long-haul routes. Its load factor declined to 74.7%, from 79.9% in March 2013.
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Matomy Media Group Ltd became the first initial public offering to be pulled in London in 2014, but the recovery in the market for new issues continued as two more companies - Tekcapital and Rame Energy - started trading on AIM for the first time. In a statement, Tel Aviv-based Matomy Media said it had got enough demand from investors to cover the IPO size it had set, but hadn't been able to meet UK listing rules that require 25% of shares in issue to be held by investors within the European Economic Area.
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Royal Dutch Shell PLC is facing an investigation by the US Coast Guard into possible breaches of law and safety regulations in connection with a drilling rig which ran aground in the Arctic off Alaska on December 31, 2012. In a statement published by the Coast Guard's official report, published on Thursday, on the grounding of the Kulluk drilling rig, it drew attention to problems with the safety management systems used on the site and noted a range of badly managed events.
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GlaxoSmithKline PLC is reducing its employees in China, the Wall Street Journal reported citing a person familiar with the matter, as the company grapples with Beijing's accusations that it bribed doctors and officials to boost sales. Quoting the person, the Journal said that the company has terminated employees in China in recent months following increased monitoring of employee expense claims. However, it is not clear how many employees have been let go. The company employs about 7,000 people in the country.
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Pennon Group PLC shares rose after the business plan of its South West Water unit was given 'enhanced' status by the UK water regulator, a key step in getting final clearance for the plan before the regulator sets the prices water companies will be able to charge customers over the five years starting in 2015. In a statement, Ofwat said it had pre-qualified South West Water, as well as water company Affinity, for enhanced status based on "the high quality of their business plans". It said both companies had accepted the regulator's guidance on risk and reward, including the cost of capital, and had committed to a small number of changes to improve their business plans.
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Workspace Group PLC said it has sold the residential portion of the second phase of its Bow Enterprise Park in east London to Peabody Enterprises for GBP11 million in cash. Workspace said the second phase of the project consists of 160 apartments and 3,000 square feet of commercial space. It is adjacent to the first phase of the development, which also was sold to Peabody in 2012, and is under construction. The manager of London office space said Peabody will pay upon taking vacant possession, expected in May 2015.
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Evraz PLC said it has signed and closed the sale of its subsidiary Evraz Vitkovice Steel (EVS) to a group of private investors for USD89 million. The Russian steel maker said the subsidiary was sold to Martinley Holdings Ltd, Nabara Holdings Ltd, Vitect Services Ltd, Hayston Investments Ltd, and Dawnaly Investments Ltd, with each acquiring 20% holdings.
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC said it has appointed a new finance chief as it moves to replace Nathan Bostock, who resigned in December fewer than three months since joining the bailed-out bank in order to join Santander UK. In a statement, RBS said it has appointed Ewen Stevenson, who joins from Credit Suisse, where he is currently co-head of EMEA Investment Banking and its Global Financial Institutions Group, Investment Banking division.
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Tesco Finance Director Laurie McIlwee is set to resign as early as next week, a move that will leave Chief Executive Philip Clarke as the only executive director on the company's board and under increasing pressure to improve performance, the Financial Times reports. The paper said McIlwee became the focus of investor disquiet in October after Tesco shocked investors by failing to signal a collapse in profits at its central European unit, and it quoted two people familiar with the matter saying he also clashed with Clarke over some areas of the company’s strategy.
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MARKETS
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Major stock indices are modestly higher across the UK as expectation builds for a strong US non-farm payroll jobs report. Positive UK data showed new car registrations increased at the fastest pace in ten years last month.
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FTSE 100: up 0.4% at 6673.6
FTSE 250: up 0.4% at 16412.49
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 852.97
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The euro is close to a five week low after perceived indecisiveness by the ECB.
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.6576
EUR-USD: down at USD1.3708

GOLD: up at USD1291.60 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD106.57 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK house prices declined for the first time in three months, a report published by Lloyds Banking Group showed. The Halifax house price index fell unexpectedly by 1.1% month-on-month, reversing the 2.5% rise seen in February. Prices were expected to increase 0.6%. Prices in the three months to March were 8.7% higher than in the same three months a year earlier, data showed.
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UK car sales increased notably to 464,824 in March, accounting for almost a fifth of full-year registrations, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said. The March new car market was just 2,130 units short of the record 2004 total. Sales were up 17.7% year-on-year in March and the year-to-date registrations advanced 13.7% to 688,122 units.
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Germany's construction activity expanded at a slower pace in March as order intakes fell at the fastest rate in 12 months, data from Markit Economics showed. The seasonally adjusted Purchasing Managers' Index fell 52.5 in March from 53.6 in February. Total industry activity has now risen for 11 months in succession and companies partly attributed this to exceptionally mild weather. The latest rise in activity was broad-based, with housing, commercial and civil engineering activity all rising.
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The International Monetary Fund said the slowdown in China's economic growth will reduce trend growth on emerging market economies. "China's transition into a slower, if more sustainable, pace of growth will also reduce growth in many other emerging market economies, at least temporarily," the lender said in the analytical chapter for its World Economic Outlook.
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The international search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 moved underwater Friday, the search coordinator announced. An Australian navy ship and a British navy ship are engaged in a joint underwater search operation towing sensitive sonic detectors listening for the signal of the plane's black box. The battery on the black box is expected to expire some time after April 7, but could last until the middle of April. Two submarines were now also engaged in the search.
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The number of Syrians registered as refugees in Lebanon has passed 1 million, giving the country the highest per-capita concentration of refugees worldwide, the UN refugee agency said on Thursday. "The influx of a million refugees would be massive in any country. For Lebanon, a small nation beset by internal difficulties, the impact is staggering," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.
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European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Thursday vowed swift action against risks of a prolonged period of low inflation in the euro area and downside risks to the region's growth. "We will monitor developments very closely and will consider all instruments available to us," Draghi said in his introductory statement in the customary post-meeting press conference in Frankfurt. "We are resolute in our determination to maintain a high degree of monetary accommodation and to act swiftly if required." The central bank left the main refi rate unchanged at a record low 0.25% for a fifth month running
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