The Morning Call - Centrica maintains guidance despite issues

Highlights of the Day

Asian Markets

After broad early gains, Asian stock markets started struggling for direction with thin action ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.

U.S. Markets

Technology and other fast-growing stocks rebounded, halting a stock-market selloff that has left investors nervous. U.S. markets are closed today for thanksgiving.

Today's News

Theresa May has vowed to return to Brussels at the weekend after her meeting late Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker concluded without a breakthrough on Britain’s future relations with the EU.

Centrica maintained its full-year guidance despite admitting that weaker than planned volumes from its E&P and Nuclear activities would have a ‘negative’ impact on full-year performance. Full-year guidance was maintained, however, with company estimating adjusted operating cash flow in the range of £2.1 to £2.3bn and adjusted earnings of around 11.5p a share.

Intu Properties said a consortium has confirmed its intention to make a £2.85bn offer for the shopping mall owner after due diligence, as Intu extends the deadline for the deal.

Standard Chartered said that the New York branch of its Standard Chartered Bank unit will no longer be monitored by an independent monitor appointed in agreement with the New York’s Department of Financial Services.

Severn Trent reported an over 4% increase in half-year underlying profit on Thursday as it announced it had now fully allocated the £100m totex reinvestment announced in 2017.

Mitie Group reported a 4.2% drop in adjusted operating profit on Thursday as it said it expected to see “modest” top-line growth for the full year. Operating profit from continuing operations (before other items) stood at £38.4m for the six months to 30 September 2018, down from £40.1m a year earlier.

Euromoney Institutional Investor reported a one-off gain from sold businesses during the year bolstered annual profits offsetting a subdued revenues. The company also warned that its pricing, data & market intelligence segment would struggle maintain the strong growth seen this year.

GVC said it had acquired Neds International for up to AUS$95m. Neds International, a relatively new entrant into the Australian digital sports betting market, was launched in 2017. The business had grown rapidly and was expected to achieve AUS$c1bn of wagers and gross gaming revenues of AUS$c100m in the year to 31 December 2018.

Rotork said it continues to expect to deliver a robust financial performance in 2018 despite a fall in its order intake in the third quarter. The engineering group said on Wednesday its third quarter order intake fell by 4% year-on-year, reflecting the variation in the timing of project orders and deliveries compared with 2017.

Oil Prices dipped after U.S. crude inventories increased to their highest level since December 2017 amid concerns of an emerging global glut, although an expected supply cut by producer cartel OPEC prevented further drops.

Gold Prices were steady after hitting their highest in two weeks in theprevious session, with improved appetite for risk weighing onthe U.S. dollar.

Companies Reporting this week

Day	Companies
Monday:	Diploma
Tuesday:	Compass * easyJet * Aveva * Electrocomponents * Big Yellow * Halma * Homeserve * SIG
Wednesday:	Sage * Marstons * Johnson Matthey* United Utilities * TalkTalk * Babcock * Kingfisher
Thursday:	Severn Trent * Rotork * Mitie * Centrica * Euromoney Institutional Investor
Friday:	–

Early Market Movements

Market	Index	Change	% Change
UK 100	7,031.7	-18.5	-0.3%
UK 250	18,548.0	-37.0	-0.2%
GER 30	11,214.4	-29.7	-0.3%
FRA 40	4,956.9	-18.6	-0.4%
US 30	24,464.69	-0.95	-0.0%
US 500	2,649.93	+8.04	+0.3%
Oil (Crude)	63.43	-0.06	-0.1%
GOLD	1,228.16	+2.12	+0.2%

UK Risers & Fallers (8:15am)

Company	Price	Change	% Change
Standard Chartered	605.5	+10.2	+1.7%
Burberry	1777.5	+23	+1.3%
Indivior	103.075	+5.295	+5.4%
Centrica	134.5	-11.25	-7.7%
Fresnillo	861.6	-51	-5.6%
Rotork	261.5	-22.5	-7.9%

Latest Broker Views

Company	Broker	Recommendation	Price	Target
Just Eat	JPMorgan	Neutral	574.6	603
United Utilities	CFRA	Hold	778	800
Halma	Morgan Stanley	Equal-Weight	1350	1360
Royal Mail	RBC	Sector Perform	191	315