The Morning Call - Centrica says it is on track to meet it's objectives

Highlights of the Day

Asian Markets

Asian shares rose after Emmanuel Macron, a centrist would-be reformer and supporter of the European Union, won the French presidential election with support of 66%.

U.S. Markets

U.S. shares rose in the wake of a victory by the centrist candidate in the closely watched presidential French election, suggesting the benchmark US500 will push further into record territory when trading reopens.

Today's News

Emmanuel Macron has won the French presidential election by a large margin, winning between 65 and 66% of the vote, according to French media projections. Macron easily beat far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen after a bitter contest pitting his pro-EU liberal platform against her calls for France to close its borders and pull out of the euro single currency. Le Pen conceded defeat and said she called Emmanuel Macron to congratulate him. “The French have chosen a new President of the Republic and have voted for continuity,” she told her supporters.

The Bank of England is expected to lower its growth outlook and keep interest rates on hold next week after the economy faltered at the start of the year. Policymakers on the Bank’s nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee are set to keep rates on hold at 0.25% following official figures estimating growth more than halved to 0.3% in the first quarter. Outgoing rate-setter Kristin Forbes is likely to repeat her call for a hike to 0.5% after breaking rank in March on fears over surging inflation, which marked the first split decision since last July.

Centrica is on track to achieve its targets and is making good operational progress, building on the momentum generated in 2016, shareholders at the annual general meeting will be told today. An update issued ahead of the meeting said that operating performance in the year to date had been largely as expected with most operational inputs and parameters in line with plan. It said that as part of this, Centrica continued to make good progress on its cost efficiency programme.

TalkTalk could be set to reveal a cut to dividend payouts as the firm prepares to announce its preliminary full year results. The figures will come as long-time chief executive Dido Harding stands down. Harding will be replaced by managing director Tristia Harrison, while founder Sir Charles Dunstone will become executive chairman in May. And according to the Sunday Times, analysts are warning that Dunstone may need to slash dividends in order to cut TalkTalk prices and build its customer base.

Jes Staley, boss of Barclays, faces a crucial test of shareholder support this week amid speculation that angry investors will refuse to back him over allegations that he failed to protect whistleblowers. The bank is due to hold its annual general meeting on Wednesday and it will be the first time that Mr Staley has publicly faced shareholders since it emerged in April that he is being investigated for breaking rules that protect whistleblowers’ identities.

Shareholders are set to question chiefs at Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group this week, with executive pay and branch closures expected to be high on the agenda at annual general meetings. Shareholders in RBS are being urged to vote against a new remuneration policy, which will face a binding investor vote at the bank’s annual meeting at Gogarburn.

Facebook has announced moves to help suppress fake news during the UK general election, starting with the deletion of tens of thousands of bogus profiles. The US social media company, which has more than 31m accounts registered in Britain, is also launching a fact-checking initiative and said it will stop promoting posts that show signs of being implausible.

Oil Prices rose on as Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said an OPEC-led production cut scheduled to end in June would likely be extended to cover all of 2017, although a relentless increase in U.S. drilling capped gains.

Gold edged up on bargain-hunting after dipping to a seven-week low earlier in the session and as the euro strengthened after pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron won the French presidential election.

Companies Reporting this week

Day	Companies
Today:	Centrica * Keystone Investment Trust * Georgia Healthcare Group
Tomorrow:	Hiscox * William Hill * Spirax-Sarco Engineering
Wednesday:	Compass Group * Bgeo Group * Vesuvius * ITV * Talktalk Telecom Group * National Express Group * Barratt Developments * Novae Group
Thursday:	Amec Foster Wheeler * BT Group * Arrow Global Group * Mondi * 3i Infrastructure * Galliford Try * Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust
Friday:	Provident Financial

Early Market Movements

Market	Index	Change	% Change
UK 100	7,290.9	-6.5	-0.1%
UK 250	19,674.5	-25.1	-0.1%
GER 30	12,759.1	+42.2	+0.3%
FRA 40	5,436.2	+3.8	+0.1%
U.S. 30	20,006.94	+55.47	+0.3%
U.S. 500	2,399.3	+9.8	+0.4%
OIL (BRENT)	49.48	+0.38	+0.8%
GOLD	1,230.06	+2.05	+0.2%

UK Risers & Fallers (8:15am)

Company	Price	Change	% Change
Euromoney Institutional Investor	1070.5	+25.5	+2.4%
Admiral Group	2103	+16	+0.8%
ITV	203.3	+1.5	+0.7%
Intercontinental Hotel Group	4189	-112	-2.6%
Vedanta	612.75	-14.75	-2.4%
Rio Tinto	2929	-50	-1.7%

Latest Broker Views

Company	Broker	Recommendation	Price	Target
BBA Aviation	Citigroup	Neutral	313.80	330.00
UDG Healthcare	Berenberg	Hold	760.50	745.00
ConvaTec Group	Deutsche Bank	Buy	296.00	330.00
Smurfit Kappa Group	Jefferies International	Buy	2,192.00	2,730.00

Forthcoming Economic Data

Time/Date	Previous	Forecast	Outcome
7:30am: U.K. Halifax HPI m/m	0.0%	0.1%	–
8:30am: European Sentix Investor Confidence	23.9	25.3	–
2:00pm: U.S. Labor Market Conditions Index m/m	0.4	–	–