Updates from Elementis, Tritax Big Box and LSE

UK equities staged a cautious rise on Wednesday with the FTSE 100 up 43 points to 6,061. StandardChartered was the Board's main climber, up 6.3% to 512.70p. However there were also strong rises for Pearson, up 5.1% to 743.50p while investors also gave strong backing for Rolls-Royce's new turnaround program, announced yesterday, up almost 5% to 566.50p. Shire climbed almost 4% to 4347p.

Despite the Fed's imminent 0.25% rate rise last night, the Dow finished almost 1.3% higher at 17,749, a 224.1 point climb in total. Though the Fed rise was modest, US growth is at more than 2% and America has an improving jobs market, but some economists are divided on the move.

We commence with a trading statement from the London Stock Exchange claiming a "good performance" from all Group arms for the 11 months to 30 November with more momentum from the integration of FTSE Russell and delivery synergies.

Primary markets are described as "robust" with £40bn of equity capital raised on the Group's markets - down 2% on last year. The LSE claims 61 new issues (2014: 193); trading conditions have been challenging generally.

"We continue to invest," says chief exec Xavier Rolet, "in a wide range of attractive organic growth opportunities, focusing in particular on our Post Trade and Information Services businesses."

Next, chemicals player Elementis: earnings per share for the current year is projected to be at the lower end of the range of market expectations it says. Its shares (at 236.70p, time of writing) are down more than 25% year-to-date.

Due to the cash generative nature of the Group plus focus on cash management, year end net cash balance though will be higher than last year's balance of $64.2 million claims Elementis.

"Looking towards 2016," it says, "management expects Specialty Products to make progress against the current year, based on its strong and diverse market positions, new product launches and resilient contribution margins."

Lastly property playerTritax Big Box says its portfolio is 100% let with contracted annual rental income of £68.2m as of today. There's a share price total return of 20.9% over 2015 year-to-date and 35.7% since IPO in December 2013.

It claims high quality institutional grade tenant mix with strong financial covenants - 84% of tenants are listed PLCs (69% in the FTSE 100 or FTSE 250). There's a 3p per share dividend paid for the six months to 30 June 2015.

"We believe," says Tritax partner Colin Godfrey, "the imbalance between supply and demand of Big Box assets is a theme which will continue to dominate the logistics sector driving further market rental growth."

Breaking news: Association of Rental Letting Agents claims average UK house prices will climb 50% in next decade