FTSE 100 Sinks To Lows, Results from Britvic, Mothercare, Thomas Cook, Bloomsbury

The FTSE 100 index has traversed to the lower end of its current trading range between circa 6060 and 6200. The low in UK morning session stood at 6068 as Crude Oil pulled back for a 2nd consecutive day. Gold was also sliding again, after comments in the Federal Reserve’s minutes that were bias toward another interest rate hike, whilst most analysts had predicted June was off the radar.

In the UK, some major companies were publishing results. Here is a quick overview of some of the movers.

Britvic plc (BVIC) published Interim results showing a first half revenue gain of 5.1%. Profit after tax was also increased by 7.5% to £41.7m, and dividend was raised to 7p. However, organic revenue (excluding from Brazil) fell 1.8% for the period.

Highlights from the group included a 7 year deal with Subway for positioning of the Britvic and Pepsi brands. Fruit Shoot multi-packs are being launched on the USA grocery channel. Simon Litherland, Chief Executive Officer stated, “We have reported a 7.1% increase in EBITA in the first half of the year despite the challenging customer environment and continued price deflation in our core markets.”.

Thomas Cook Group PLC (TCG) stated despite disruption in some key markets, they were able to make significant progress. This set of results showed a narrowing of losses at the holiday group, pretax loss was at GBP208m, compared to a loss of GBP303m for the 2015 period. TCG share price was down 18% in early morning trading.

Mothercare PLC (MTC) published a swing into full year profit. Underlying profit before tax was up 51% at £19.6m. Online sales were also up by 15% and losses reduced by 64%. This could be a major turning point for the company. Mark Newton-Jones, Chief Executive, said, “I’m pleased to report that two years into our turnaround strategy we have recorded a 51% growth in underlying profit before tax and the delivery of our first statutory profit in five years.”.

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (BMY) the famous book publisher of the Harry Potter series published a jump in revenue of 11% to £123.7 million. Profit before tax gained 8% to £13.0 million. It was reported that sales of Harry Potter in the year grew by 133%, the Children’s and Education revenue increased by 57%.

FTSE 100 Stuck In March Range, Results Round Up May 18th

After a couple of indifferent days the FTSE 100 is stuck back in the range that held it trapped during March. Oil continued its climb toward $50 but halted, Gold still holds above $1250, whilst Technology Hardware & Equipment and Mobile Telecommunications are the leading sectors in the UK during early trading on the 18th May.

There’s been some company results reported to the markets today. Here’s some short snapshots of what was released.

SABMiller PLC (SAB) reported a drop in full year profits from $4830M in 2015 to $4074M for 2016. Also down was revenue to $19,833M from $22,130m in 2015. Dividend was hiked by 8%.
Alan Clark, Chief Executive, said: “These are good results. We grew EBITA across all regions and our group EBITA margin improved through the year, on an underlying basis.” and, “As noted through the year, the strengthening dollar against our operating currencies had a material negative impact on reported results.”

Burberry Group PLC (BRBY) announced preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2016. Revenue was £2.5bn, down 1% underlying, adjusted profit before tax down £35m to £421m. However it was also announced that full year dividend is at 37p, up 5%, and a share buyback of up to £150m is going to commence in 2017.

Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative and CEO, stated: “While we expect the challenging environment for the luxury sector to continue in the near term, we are firmly committed to making the changes needed to drive Burberry’s future outperformance, underpinned by strong brand and business fundamentals.”.

Marston’s PLC (MARS), the high quality pub and beer business, announced a turnaround in their Interim results for the last 26 week period, with a profit before tax up 11.8% to £33.1 million. This compares to a loss of £27.5M in 2015. Revenue was also up 11.5% to £428.7 million. They stated that operating profit was able to grow by 16% due to the Thwaites acquisition.

Ralph Findlay, CEO stated: “We are encouraged by our first half performance and are on track to meet our expectations for the year. In pubs, we have driven our growth by the organic development of pub-restaurants and franchise-style p