The Morning Call - Vodafone carries the UK100 higher as it counteracts below par easyjet results

Highlights of the Day

Asian Markets

Asian shares were narrowly mixed as political turmoil engulfed the Trump administration over ties with Russia and investors turned cautious on the potential fallout on economic policy plans.

U.S. Markets

U.S. Shares hit records as technology stocks rallied after a global cyber attack and strong corporate earnings.

Today's News

EasyJet slumped into a half-year loss of £236m despite boasting a record number of passengers, hit by the later timing of Easter and currency pressures from the weaker pound. The company reported a worsening of its pre-tax losses in the six months to the end of March, compared to an £18m loss in the same period last year, while headline losses also deepened by £191m to £212m. Revenues over the period inched up by 3.2% with total passenger levels also hitting new records to 33.8m – a climb of 9%.

Full year pre-tax profits at DCC rose 23.7% to £268.2m on the back of a 17% rise in revenue to £12.2bn. Operating profit rose to £345m from £285.3m in the previous year. DCC’s energy division reported a 24% jump in operating profits to £255m. The final dividend increased 16.3% to 74.63p a share for a total dividend for the year of 111.8p a share. Chief executive Tommy Breen said the results reflected the continued execution of DCC’s strategy in “significantly growing operating profits, converting those profits into cash and re-deploying capital into our Energy, Healthcare and Technology businesses”.

Vodafone, reported a €6.1bn loss for the year to end-March, dragged lower by its Indian unit it is merging with Idea Cellular. The group, however, forecast growth in earnings and free cash flow for the current year, driven by stablilising average revenue from its contract customers and lower spending. It predicted organic adjusted core earnings growth of 4-8% and free cash flow of about 5bn.

Inmarsat has launched it’s 4th GX Satellite. The satellite, Inmarsat-5 F4 was launched by SpaceX on a Falcon 9 rocket just past midnight London time from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with telemetry acquired from Inmarsat’s Perth ground station an hour later. “The launch team from Inmarsat and Boeing Network & Space Systems, the manufacturer of I-5 F4, are now raising the spacecraft to a geostationary orbit, at which point the satellite will deploy its solar arrays and reflectors, and undergo payload testing,” the company said.

BTG reported that its fiscal 2017 profit before tax declined to £31.6m from last year’s £57.5m. IFRS profit before tax was lower as the effect of the hedging losses more than offset slightly higher IFRS operating profit, the company said. Earnings per share fell to 8.6p from 15.6p a year ago. The results reflected growth in adjusted operating profit, partly offset by hedging losses on foreign exchange forward contracts. Revenue climbed 27% to £570.5m from £447.5m last year.

Virgin Money has walked away from a deal to buy Co-op Bank after months of speculation linking the lender with a move. The company, led by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, informed Co-op Bank in recent days that discussions were being terminated. Co-op Bank now looks set to advance in talks with a group of hedge funds, led by GoldenTree Asset Management and Silver Point, about a financial restructuring. Co-op Bank kicked off a sale process, run by bankers from UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in mid-February.

Crest Nicholson said that trading remains in line with expectations and it’s on track to deliver revenue growth of around 10% for the year to the end of October 2017. Average selling prices were up 12% in the six months to the end of April from the same period a year ago at £418,000, while forward sales at the end of April were 5% ahead of last year, supported by an increase in outlet numbers.

For the year ended 31st March 2017 Speedy Hire has reported a pre-tax profit of £14.4m, compared to a £57.6m loss the previous year. Revenue increased 12% to £369.4m. Net debt has been brought down during the year from £102.6m to £71.4m and return on capital employed has improved form 3.2% to 7.7%. Excluding disposals, ROCE was 8.4%. Chairman Jan Åstrand, who survived a shareholder revolt last year that attempted to oust him and merge Speedy with HSS, said: “I am pleased to report that the actions undertaken by management have enabled us to report substantially improved results”

Oil prices extending gains after a joint announcement by top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia to push for an extension of supply cuts until the end of March 2018 gained traction with other suppliers.

Gold rose for a fourth day as the dollar eased on signs of slower economic activity in the United States that dented expectations of an aggressive string of interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Companies Reporting this week

Day	Companies
Today:	CYBG * TUI * easyjet Group * BTG * NewRiver Retail * Premier Foods * Vodafone Group
Tomorrow:	Brewin Dolphin Holdings * Countryside Properties * Mitchells & Butlers * British Land * SSE * Premier Oil
Thursday:	Bloomsbury Publishing * Booker Group * Burberry Group * Investec * Land Securities Group * National Grid * Royal Mail * Euromoney Institutional Investor * Marston’s * Thomas Cook Group * Balfour Beatty * Hargreaves Lansdown
Friday:	Hikma Pharmaceuticals

Early Market Movements

Market	Index	Change	% Change
UK 100	7,471.1	+16.7	+0.2%
UK 250	19,785.4	+34.4	+0.2%
GER 30	12,794.4	-12.6	-0.1%
FRA 40	5,391.8	-25.6	-0.5%
U.S. 30	20,981.94	+85.33	+0.4%
U.S. 500	2,402.3	+11.4	+0.5%
OIL (BRENT)	52.01	+0.19	+0.4%
GOLD	1,235.46	+4.64	+0.4%

UK Risers & Fallers (8:15am)

Company	Price	Change	% Change
Countryside Properties	287	+9.1	+3.3%
Vodafone	216.3	+5.2	+2.5%
Convatec	299.3	+3.4	+1.1%
Micro Focus	2385	-115	-4.6%
BTG	695.75	-26.25	-3.6%
Easyjet	1263	-47	-3.6%

Latest Broker Views

Company	Broker	Recommendation	Price	Target
Countryside Properties	Berenberg	Buy	277.90	330.00
Glencore	Macquarie	Outperform	294.00	385.00
SSE	JP Morgan Cazenove	Neutral	1,444.50	1,540.00
TUI AG	Barclays Capital	Overweight	1,133.00	1,280.00

Forthcoming Economic Data

Time/Date	Previous	Forecast	Outcome
8:30am: U.K. CPI y/y	2.3%	2.6%	–
8:30am: U.K. PPI Input m/m	0.1%	0.4%	–
8:30am: U.K. RPI y/y	3.1%	3.4%	–
9:00am: European Flash GDP q/q	0.5%	0.5%	–
12:30pm: U.S. Building Permits	1.27M	1.27M	–