AB Foods quarterly revenues up 32%, EasyJet 'consolidating' flights over summer

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was being called to open 16.7 points higher ahead of the bell on Monday after closing 0.41% lower at 7,016.25 in the previous session.

Stocks to watch

Food and retail company Associated British Foods said n Monday that recent trading had been in line with expectations, with revenues up across all of the group's key verticals due to both price hikes aimed at recovering input cost inflation and a marked volume increase in its ingredients division.

Associated British Foods posted a 32% increase in group revenues to £.3.03bn for the three months ended 28 May, with a 24% improvement in ingredients revenue leading the way.

Low-cost airline EasyJet said on Monday that it was "consolidating" flights over the summer period and warned that it was facing higher-than-expected costs as a result of well-documented staff shortages across the industry.

EasyJet stated it expects fourth-quarter capacity to be around 90% of pre-Covid pandemic levels.

Newspaper round-up

House prices in Great Britain hit a record high in June but are likely to start falling during the next few months as five interest rate rises and a worsening cost of living crisis finally start to put the brakes on the property market's record-breaking run, according to Rightmove. The property website said asking prices hit a record for a fifth consecutive month in June, rising by 0.3% – or £1,113 – to reach £368,614. However, this was the smallest monthly increase since January, with the site saying: "The exceptional pace of the market is easing a little." - Guardian

British manufacturers have called on the Treasury to urgently provide more support amid a poor economic outlook to help "weather the immediate storm". Make UK, the trade body for manufacturers, and the consultancy BDO found that costs were continuing to rise and output opportunities had been stifled. - Guardian

Germany is to reopen mothballed coal power plants to combat high gas prices, piling pressure on Boris Johnson to cut taxes on household energy bills. The German government will pass emergency laws to reactivate the coal plants as Europe takes steps to deal with reduced energy supplies from Russia. The announcement on Sunday came as part of a series of measures, including new incentives for companies to burn less natural gas. - Telegraph

The highly leveraged £6.8bn takeover of Asda resulted in the supermarket paying £375.1m in interest last year, new accounts have shown. Asda's new owners are yet to take any dividends from the business, but, as a result of the £4.06bn of debt used to finance their takeover, the company has paid £202.0m of interest on external debt, £106.0m on its lease liabilities, £56.0m on intercompany loans and £2.0m of additional undisclosed interest payments, according to Companies House filings from the owners' Bellis Finco vehicle. - The Times

More than 6.5m people plan to quit their jobs within the next year as they search for better pay and benefits and an improved work/life balance. Worsening staff shortages have forced companies to pay staff more, as well as to offer improved training and other incentives in the battle for talent. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks delivered a mixed performance on Friday as fears of a potential economic slowdown continued to weigh on sentiment.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.13% at 29,888.78, while the S&P 500 was 0.22% firmer at 3,674.84 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.43% stronger at 10,798.35.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com