TOP NEWS: UK Inflation Unexpectedly Jumps To 1.9% In June

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Tuesday.
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COMPANIES
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Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC said it has won a contract with Airbus which will see its Trent 700 engines power five new A330 aircraft that will be leased by Airbus to Kuwait Airways. The FTSE 100-listed company said the engines will be the first Trents to enter service with the Middle East airline, which has also ordered long-term TotalCare support for the engines, its first long-term services agreement, said Rolls-Royce. In December 2013 Kuwait Airways ordered ten Airbus A350 XWB aircraft, which will be powered by the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB. Rolls-Royce said more than 1,500 Trent 700s are currently in service or are on order. No financial details of the deal were disclosed.
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Telecom Plus PLC gave a bullish forecast for its first half, saying its expects results "significantly ahead" of the previous year as it saw a strong performance in its first quarter to end-June. The utilities company, which provides services including gas, electricity and broadband, said it had seen customers rise during the quarter to 547,378 from 474,404 in the previous year. It expressed confidence in meeting its target of growing its customer base to around 600,000 by the end of the year.
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Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC sold Kiddicare this week to UK-based private equity house Endless LLP for GBP2 million, just a fraction of the GBP70 million it paid for the online baby products business just three years ago. Morrisons said in March that it was looking to sell the baby products retailer, as the struggling supermarket chain reported a swing to a pretax loss in its last financial year. Morrisons announced a raft of new measures aimed at turning the business around, including heavy investments in price cuts and property disposals.
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Premier Inns hotels and Costa coffee chain operator Whitbread PLC said it has appointed Richard Baker as its new chairman, with effect from September 1. Baker will succeed Anthony Habgood, who earlier this year said he would be stepping down after nine years at the company. Baker has been on Whitbread's board as a non-executive director since September 2009. Baker also is currently chairman of Virgin Active Group and DFS Furniture Holdings.
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Bowleven PLC said that it has reached a mutual agreement with FTSE 100-listed Petrofac PLC to terminate its strategic alliance agreement. The AIM-listed company said that the termination satisfies one of the conditions of the LUKOIL and NewAge farm-out transaction announced June 24, 2014. The termination agreement is subject to completion of the farm-out. The oil and gas exploration and development company said at the time that it would reduce its interest in the Etinde permit from 75% to 25%, providing LUKOIL with a 37.5% interest and NewAge an additional 12.5% stake, bringing its holding to 37.5%. Under the terms of the strategic alliance arrangement Bowleven said that it will pay USD9 million to Petrofac upon completion of the farm-out transaction as full and final settlement, officially terminating the Strategic Alliance Agreement.
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Online gaming company Bwin.party Digital Entertainment PLC said revenue in the second quarter was softer than expected as strong sports betting was held back by weak poker and casino revenue, while fellow gaming company GVC Holdings PLC reported strong growth in the quarter. Bwin.party said its revenue performance in the second quarter and the first half of the year as a whole was "mixed", with a solid performance in sports, up year-on-year, but weak trading in both poker and casino, and flat bingo revenue held back by challenging competitive conditions in the UK and Italy.
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Recruiter Michael Page International PLC said its gross profit increased in the first half of the year, supported by strong growth in the UK, US and China but said its profit in the period was hit by the strength of sterling. The group reported a gross profit of GBP263.7 million for the first half of the year year, up 0.7% on a reported basis from GBP261.9 million a year earlier, but up 7.9% at constant exchange rates. However, Michael Page said a strong pound wiped GBP10 million off its gross profit in the second quarter and a total of GBP19 million off its profit for the first half of the year as a whole.
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Dairy Crest Group PLC saw its shares fall after it said most of its key brands performed well in the first quarter, but sales of its margarine brand Clover continued to slump, hit by a difficult spreads and butter market in the UK. The dairy food company said its four key brands - Cathedral City, Clover, Country Life and FRijj - collectively grew by 4% in the quarter ended June 30. However, while Cathedral City, Country Life and FRijj each grew sales by more than 5%, the Clover brand continued to see a fall in sales in a difficult spreads market, it said.
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MARKETS
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UK stocks are trading lower, giving up slim early gains as equity investors await some important US company earnings later in the session, as well as the appearance of US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen before Congress for her semi-annual testimony.
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FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6736.51
FTSE 250: down 0.5% at 15500.63
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1%at 776.27
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The pound is up against the dollar having earlier risen to a 4-day high of 1.7146 after UK consumer price inflation rose by more-than-expected in June.
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.7138
EUR-USD: down at USD1.2603

GOLD: up at USD1311.61 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD106.02 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK inflation accelerated more than expected in June on higher clothing and footwear prices, data revealed. Consumer prices rose 1.9% in June from last year, the Office for National Statistics said. A similar rate of increase was last seen in January and this was the fastest since December 2013. Inflation was forecast to rise moderately to 1.6% from 1.5% in May. Month-on-month, consumer prices gained 0.2%, confounding expectations for a 0.1% fall. Prices declined 0.1% in May.
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Like-for-like retail sales in the UK were down 0.8% on year in June, the British Retail Consortium said. That was well shy of forecasts for an increase of 1.0% following the 0.5% annual gain in May. "Consumers continue to benefit from competitive pricing, which may be the cause of softer like-for-like sales in June," BRC director-general Helen Dickinson said. Overall retail spending added an annual 0.6% in June, and it was up 2.6% in the second quarter of 2014.
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Britain's Defence Secretary Philip Hammond is to replace Foreign Secretary William Hague, Downing Street said. Hague unexpectedly resigned late Monday, and said he would not be standing for parliament again in next year's general election.British Foreign Secretary William Hague is resigning and will stand down at the next election, he said in an unexpected announcement late Monday, as part of a Cabinet reshuffle. "By the time of the general election next year, I will have served 26 years in the House of Commons and it will be 20 years since I first joined the Cabinet," said Hague in a statement.
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The Bank of Japan maintained its monetary stimulus unchanged as widely expected and reaffirmed its aim to achieve the 2% inflation in a stable manner. But the growth outlook for the current fiscal year was downgraded as exports and household spending remain weak. At the Monetary Policy Meeting held on Tuesday, members unanimously decided to continue to increase the monetary base at an annual pace of about JPY60-JPY70 trillion.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns his government will resume and intensify the Gaza offensive if Hamas and other armed groups in the Strip do not stop firing rockets and reject an Egyptian-proposed truce. "If Hamas rejects the proposals and the rocket fire does not cease we are prepared to continue and intensify the attacks," he told a news conference with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Netanyahu is asking the international community to support the Egyptian initiative.
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Iran is offering to hold off from expanding its uranium-enrichment programme for about seven years in negotiations with six world powers, Tehran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said in remarks published by The New York Times. Zarif outlined the offer as negotiators were struggling in Vienna to reach a deal by a Sunday deadline that would curb Iran's nuclear programme, end sanctions targeting the country and ultimately repair its relations with the world. The size of Iran's uranium-enrichment programme is one of the key elements of the deal, on which negotiators have made little headway, diplomats have said.
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Iraqi forces launched an attack to retake the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, the second offensive since Sunni extremists took over several cities across the country last month. Army officials told dpa that military forces began their assault on the city from the northern and southern entrances of the city, and are trying to move towards the provincial council in the centre of Tikrit. The forces are backed by tanks, helicopters and artillery as they attempt to seize control of the city from milita led by fighters of the terrorist organisation Islamic State. The army have been trying to take control of Tikrit, 140 kilometres north-west of Baghdad, for the past two weeks.
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