Wetherspoon (J.D) Share News (JDW)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened in the green on Friday after the Commons voted to delay Brexit and as food and drink chains JD Wetherspoon and Restaurant Group recovered from early losses to surge to the top of the FTSE 250 index.The mid-cap index was up 80.87 points, or 0.4%, at 19,363.86 early Friday. The FTSE 100 index of large-cap stocks was 38.05 points higher, or 0.5%, at 7,223.41 The AIM All-Share index was up marginally at 913.20.The Cboe UK 100 index was flat at 12,205.88. The Cboe 250 was up marginally at 17,284.21, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.1% at 11,130.63."The FTSE100 also looks set to post its first positive week in a month, helped by a decent performance from the oil and gas and banking sector," said CMC's Michael Hewson.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3219 early Friday, down from USD1.3277 at the London equities close on Thursday. Sterling hit a nine-month high of USD1.3381 after members of Parliament on Wednesday had voted to rule out a no-deal Brexit.The euro was quoted at USD1.1325 early Friday, up from USD1.1301 at the European equities close on Thursday. Hewson added: "Having come to the end of a busy week of parliamentary votes at Westminster it would appear that we are no closer to ascertaining what common position MPs would like to coalesce around with respect to the Brexit process. In a week of serial losses, the government did manage to defeat one amendment which would have wrested control of the Brexit process away from the executive by the wafer-thin margin of 2 votes."Another failure of the deal would mean that control of the next steps of the Brexit process would then pass into the hands of EU leaders, all 27 of them at next week's European Council meeting. They would then have to weigh up the risks of a lengthy extension, when balanced against the risks of a no deal Brexit."In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.8% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.1% early Friday.Parliament voted Thursday to delay Brexit beyond the scheduled date of March 29 in dramatic parliamentary scenes which saw the Conservative Party split down the middle.More than half of Tory MPs - including seven Cabinet ministers, at least 33 other ministers and whips, and five party vice-chairs - voted against UK Prime Minister Theresa May's motion to put back the date when Britain leaves the EU.Downing Street sources denied that May had lost control of her Cabinet or her party, insisting that the results were a "natural consequence" of the prime minister's decision to offer a free vote on an issue where many hold strong views.The vote to delay Brexit came after May's Withdrawal Agreement was rejected for the second time on Tuesday and MPs voted the following day to rule out no-deal.In Europe, leaders are considering whether to agree to UK calls for Brexit to be delayed. But any delay will require the agreement of the other 27 EU members, with talks about any conditions for an extension set to begin before leaders gather at a summit next week.In early trading in London, blue-chip homebuilder Berkeley Group was up 1.4% after reiterating its guidance for its current financial year ended April 30 and the two years after that due to a stable trading environment. "The trading environment for Berkeley remains consistent with that experienced over the last two years. This stability allows Berkeley to reiterate the updated pre-tax profit guidance it provided with its interim results in December 2018 for this, and the next two years, which represented an increase of around 8% in the guidance for the current year," the company said.The company's guidance at the end of its previous year was for a pre-tax profit for the two years to April 30 of "at least GBP1.58 billion", with guidance for the five years ending 30 April 2021 of "at least GBP3.38 billion".In the FTSE 250, Restaurant Group was up 12%, after opening down 6%. It reported a significant fall in annual profit despite describing the year of 2018 as "pivotal". For the year to December 30, the restaurant franchise operator posted pretax profit of GBP13.9 million, more than halved from GBP28.2 million a year ago. This included a GBP39.2 million exceptional charge due to an onerous lease review and a GBP14.8 million charge related to its recent acquisition of the Wagamama noodle shop chain.On an adjusted basis, excluding exceptional items, pretax profit came in 8.1% lower at GBP53.2 million from GBP57.8 million.Revenue meanwhile was up 1.0% to GBP686.0 million from GBP679.3 million a year prior, while total sales increase 1.0%. On a like-for-like basis, annual sales were down 2.0%.In the ten weeks to March 10, Restaurant Group's like-for-like sales are up 2.8%, in line with management expectations.Likewise, JD Wetherspoon clawed back early losses to trade up 2.3% after reporting a significant drop in profit for the first half of its financial year, hampered by higher costs, and warned of a similar outcome for the full year to July. For the six months to January 27, Wetherspoon's pretax profit fell 19% to GBP50.3 million from GBP62.0 million in the comparative period a year ago.Revenue was up 7.1% to GBP889.6 million from GBP830.4 million, with like-for-like sales increased 6.3%.The company attributed the fall in profit to cost increases in areas including labour, up by GBP33.0 million. Meanwhile, repairs increased GBP3.7 million, utilities by GBP2.5 million, and interest & depreciation by GBP5.7 million.The pub chain held its interim dividend at 4.0 pence per share.Looking ahead, Wetherspoon reported that in the six weeks to March 10, like-for-like sales increased by 9.6%, helped by "excellent weather", compared with snow and cold freezing temperatures last year. Total sales increased by 11%.Ei Group was up 2.0% after the pub company updated its financial guidance for its current and next financial year following the sale of its commercial properties, expecting a gradual reduction in interest costs. Ei Group said it had completed the sale of 348 properties, the first tranche of the 370 properties to be sold. The group has received GBP336.6 million from the first sale, and the second sale of the remaining 22 properties is subject to superior landlord consent. Once gained, the sale of the 22 assets will generate proceeds of GBP11.4 million.In addition, the group announced a share buyback programme to repurchase up to 69.5 million shares for GBP35 million.At the other end of the midcap index, Greencore was down 2.0% in early trading after German investment bank Berenberg cut the Irish convenience food company to Hold from Buy. In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed 0.8% higher. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed 1.0% higher, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended up 0.7%.The Bank of Japan decided on Friday to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy to overcome stubborn deflation and prop up the world's third-largest economy.The economic events calendar on Friday has Eurozone consumer price index at 1000 GMT and US industrial production at 1315 GMT.