UK shares made a fairly uninspired start, with FTSE100 down a tad and small caps flat.
Barclays reported a 25% drop in profits for the first quarter, which it blames on a weak performance in its investment banking division.
Pre-tax profit for the first three months of the year was £793mln, down from £1.1bn compared to the corresponding period last year.
Shares were the top riser on Footsie, gaining over 1% to stand at 175.10p.
FTSE100 itself was down around five points at 6,279, while the FTSE AIM100 was flat at 3,409 and the FTSE AIM All share was just 0.03% ahead at 729.440. Traders are eyeing the policy decision set to be announced later by the Fed.
Top London riser was Outsourcery (LON:OUT), up over 86% to 6.75p as it confirmed that it has reached agreement with its principal lender, Vodafone on a new conditional drawdown working capital facility.
Rose Petroleum PLC (LON:ROSE) was a big faller despite it moving to “substantially de-risk” the business following a strategic review of its portfolio of assets in Utah that caps costs and decommissioning liabilities.
The firm said it was terminating its earn-in agreement governing ownership of its Mancos acreage.
It has also agreed with Rockies Standard Oil Company to hand back the Cisco Dome field, wells, pipelines, gas tap, gas plant and all the equipment. Rose will cover the plug and abandonment costs of four wells put at US$320,000 and leave operator bonds in place with the State of Utah and the Bureau of Land Management.
Shares slumped almost 24% in early deals to 0.16p.
Blur Group (LON:BLUR) was also down - 14.55% to 11.75p. The online sourcing specialist said in its full-year results statement that it has completed the transition to a company focused purely on larger organisations – the “enterprise market”, as it is known in marketing jargon.
Drug developer Summit Therapeutics PLC (NASDAQ:SMMT, LON:SUMM) continued teh good run from yesterday, adding over 13% to 129p after the key FDA today allowed the company to broaden the scope of its phase II clinical trial of its drug ezutromid to trial sites in the US.
The green light provides a welcome boost to researchers working on the utrophin modulator, although it should be noted that ezutromid, formerly known as SMT C1100, is still in the formative stages of development.
Small cap miners were also on the up, with Kibo Mining, the developer of the Mbeya coal-fired power development in Tanzania, up 14.71% to 4.88p.
Golden Saint Resources (LON:GSR), the gold and diamond mining group, gained almost 12% at 0.05p.
The London Stock Exchange reported 8% growth in its first-quarter revenues.
Revenue for the first three months of 2016 rose to £358.9mln, from £332.1mln in the same period last year.
Total income from continuing operations grew 9% to £387.6mln.
it remains focused on achieving synergies from the FTSE Russell index operations and on investments in a range of growth initiatives, said LSE group.
Elsewhere, Home Retail Group reported a full year pre-tax loss of £804mln after being hit with an £852mln exceptional goodwill impairment charge relating to the Sainsbury's takeover.
The charge aside, annual operating profits dropped 28% to £94.7mln and sales were down 1% to £5.6bn.
Bus operator Stagecoach Group revealed revenue growth in its UK coach operations over the last year had been disappointing, but remained on course to meet expectations for adjusted earnings per share for the year.
It added, however, that the outlook for the UK rail industry is more challenging than it was last year.
Like-for-like rail revenue growth in its UK rail division was 2.5% to April 2.
Meanwhile, the speciality chemicals group Elementis reported first-quarter Total sales had declined 7% compared to last year, due in part to weak currency and lower oilfield sales.
Oilfield sales fell 37% due to the sharp downturn in North American demand. Chromium sales for the first quarter were 11% lower than the previous year, as expected.