Ocado swings to loss in H1, SSE 'slightly' exceeds Q1 expectations

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was being called to open just 0.5 points higher ahead of the bell on Thursday after closing out the previous session 0.44% softer at 7,264.31.

Stocks to watch

Online grocer Ocado said on Thursday that it had swung to an underlying loss in the six months ended 29 May, principally due to a £72.8m drop in retail EBITDA as a result of lower sales and cost inflation.

Ocado posted a group LBITDA of £13.6m, versus the previous year's EBITDA of £61.0m, while pre-tax losses came to £758.8m, a marked reversal when compared to the £188.5m pre-tax profit delivered the same time twelve months earlier. Group revenues slipped 4.4% to £1.26bn.

Energy provider SSE said on Thursday that its first-quarter trading performance had "slightly exceeded" internal expectations, leading the group to reaffirm its full-year guidance for adjusted earnings per share of at least 120.0p.

SSE stated progress had been made across various capex projects "at pace", with the first power from its Seagreen offshore wind farm asset expected by the end of July and construction on its Viking onshore wind farm and Dogger Bank A, B & C offshore wind farms said to be "progressing well".

Newspaper round-up

Tesla's second quarter of 2022 came to a shaky end as the electric carmaker reported a drop in profit after it struggled to meet demand due to a shutdown of its Shanghai factory and production challenges at new plants. The company also sold 75% of its bitcoin holdings, leading to a slide in the cryptocurrency price. Tesla's second-quarter profit fell 32% from record levels in the first quarter, with the company reporting a $2.26bn net profit on Wednesday. – Guardian

A growing number of financially squeezed households are "turning to crime" by submitting bogus insurance claims, with data revealing a sharp rise in cases over the past year. Zurich UK, one of Britain's biggest insurers, said the cost of living crisis was fuelling the increase in insurance fraud, where people exaggerate or make up claims for items such as jewellery and electrical goods. – Guardian

As inflation surged to a fresh 40-year high of 9.4% in June, it may seem times could not get much tougher for the Bank of England – and its prospects of achieving the 2% target. Yet under the bonnet lie dangerous signs that price rises are becoming embedded across the UK. Price rises in June are even higher than officials anticipated – and they expect it to get worse, surging to 11% in October when the energy price cap jumps again. – Telegraph

Gatwick has hired hundreds of new security staff in a last-ditch effort to avoid the repeat of travel chaos witnessed at airports up and down the country. Some 400 workers have been cleared by a Government-sponsored vetting process to cut down waiting times at the UK's second-busiest airport. – Telegraph

Insurers are on a collision course with the Bank of England after the industry warned that a post-Brexit revamp of capital rules risked falling short of triggering the investment "Big Bang" sought by the government. The Association of British Insurers said proposals by regulators to overhaul Solvency II regulations would result in life companies holding more, rather than less, capital. In its response to a government consultation on the reform, the lobby group argued that pension customers would be stung by higher costs under the plans. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Wednesday as market participants remained firmly focussed on corporate earnings.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.15% at 31,874.84, while the S&P 500 was 0.59% firmer at 3,959.90 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.58% higher at 11,897.65.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com