Hammerson earnings rise as footfall rebounds, Morgan Advanced swings to profit

London open

The FTSE 100 was called to open 80 points lower at 7,15.

Stocks to watch

Retail property owner Hammerson reported a rise in adjusted earnings as the easing of Covid restrictions saw a rebound of footfall to its shopping centres.

The company on Friday reported earnings of £81m, up from £37m a year ago. Gross rental income fell to £241.6m from £287m due to disposals during the year. Hammerson’s loss for the year on an IFRS basis narrowed to £430m form £1.7bn.

Morgan Advanced Materials said it swung to a full-year pre-tax profit as demand recovered strongly across the global economy.

In the year to 31 December 2021, the group swung to a statutory pre-tax profit of £104.3m from a loss of £13.1m the year before, with revenues up 4.4% at £950.5m.

Newspaper round-up

Britain’s economic growth will halve this year as a result of soaring inflation, hefty tax rises and the destabilising shock from the war in Ukraine, a leading business lobby group has warned. In the first major forecast of the UK economy since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said it expected an inflation rate of 8% to cut disposable incomes in 2022, putting the brakes on the recovery from the pandemic. – Guardian

Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, says he is inviting the United Auto Workers labor union (UAW) to hold a vote at the electric carmaker’s California factory. The announcement comes three months after the billionaire Musk criticized the Biden administration and Democrats for a proposal to give union-made, US-built electric vehicles an additional $4,500 tax incentive. - Guardian

Russia’s second-largest oil company has urged Vladimir Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine in a sign of hardening resistance against the conflict among influential oligarchs. Lukoil, led by billionaire founder Vagit Alekperov, called for an “immediate cessation of the armed conflict” and expressed concern over the “tragic events” as domestic pressure on the Kremlin mounts. - Telegraph

OneWeb, the UK-backed satellite internet company, is in discussions with its French contractor and alternative partners after suspending all launches from Russia’s cosmodrome in Kazakhstan amid a deepening stand-off with Russia’s space agency. The decision by OneWeb’s board, which includes representatives of shareholders from the government, Bharti Global, of India, SoftBank, of Japan, and Eutelsat, of France, was welcomed by Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, yesterday. - The Times

The world’s largest asset manager has barred its investors from buying any more Russian securities, after it was criticised by campaigners for its response to the invasion of Ukraine. Yesterday BlackRock said that it had “suspended the purchase of all Russian securities in [its] active and index funds”. The policy, it said, had come in on Monday. It added that it was pressing index providers to remove Russian securities from broad-based benchmarks. - The Times

US close

Wall Street's main market indices were in the red at the close on Thursday, following the release of a mixed batch of economic data. While investors kept a wary eye on the latest developments in Ukraine.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session down 0.29% at 33,794.66, as the S&P 500 lost 0.53% to 4,363.49 and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.56% weaker at 13,537.94.