Tesco reiterates full-year guidance, Centrica lifts earnings outlook

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 18 points higher on Thursday, having closed up 0.4% at 7,724.98 on Wednesday.

Stocks to watch

Tesco reiterated full-year profit guidance after the supermarket chain posted strong Christmas sales. The grocer, the UK’s largest by market share, said like-for-like sales excluding fuel in the UK and Ireland jumped by 7.8% in the six weeks to 7 January and by 7.2% in the UK. Across the 19 weeks to 7 January - which includes the third quarter - group sales rose 6.4%.

British Gas owner Centrica lifted earnings guidance again as volumes remained strong amid surging energy prices for consumers. In an extremely brief trading statement, the company said it now expected full year adjusted earnings per share of above 30p compared with a previous estimate of between 15.1p and 26p provided on November 10.

Marks and Spencer reported a “strong” Christmas trading performance in an update on Thursday, with food sales up 10.2% in the third quarter, and clothing and home 8.8% firmer. The FTSE 250 retailer said international sales were 12.5% at constant currency for the 13 weeks ended 31 December. It said the strong performance gave the board confidence that full-year results would be in line with its November guidance.

Newspaper round-up

Ministers are being urged to stop the forced installation of prepayment meters after revelations that 3.2 million people – the equivalent of one person every 10 seconds – were left with cold and dark homes last year as they ran out of credit. As energy prices surged this winter, suppliers have stepped up the use of court warrants to force their way into homes to install prepayment meters, with some magistrates approving hundreds of applications at a time. For homes with smart meters, the change can be made remotely without even needing a warrant. – Guardian

Elon Musk has broken the world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history, according to a Guinness World Records report. The tech billionaire has lost approximately $182bn (£150bn) since November 2021, although other sources suggest that it could actually be closer to $200bn, the report said. – Guardian

More than 750,000 households are at risk of defaulting on their mortgages over the next two years as soaring borrowing costs make payments unaffordable, Britain's financial regulator has warned. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that over 200,000 households had already fallen behind on payments by the end of June 2022 - with bills overdue on around one in 40 home loans. – Telegraph

Striking train drivers are to reject a £5,000 pay rise as leaked proposals reveal government plans to impose greater reliance on automation across the railways. In a move that raises the spectre of more strike action, the executive committee of drivers union Aslef will next week vote against an 8pc pay rise, The Telegraph has learnt. – Telegraph

The bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has recovered assets worth more than $5 billion, according to its attorneys, after its collapse left investors, customers and lenders facing steep losses. Andy Dietderich, who represents FTX, told a bankruptcy court in Delaware yesterday that it had located “cash, liquid cryptocurrency and liquid investment securities”, and also planned to sell non-strategic investments with a book value of $4.6 billion. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks ended the session in the green on Wednesday as major indices managed to build on what has generally been a strong start to 2023.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.80% at 33,973.01, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.28% to 3,969.61 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.76% firmer at 10,931.67.

The Dow closed 268.91 points higher on Wednesday, extending gains recorded in the previous session after comments from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.

News from Finnish think tank the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air that revealed Russian revenues from fossil fuel exports tumbled in December drew an amount of investor attention on Wednesday, with the first month of the European Union's ban on seaborne imports of crude from the nation and the G-7's price cap costing Moscow roughly $171.8m per day and significantly hampering Vladimir Putin's ability to fund his war in neighbouring Ukraine.

However, Oleg Ustenko, economic advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stated that while it was "very good news" that Western measures had hurt Russia, they were "definitely not enough" and called for a price cap against the Kremlin of $20 to $30 a barrel - markedly lower than the current $60-per-barrel price cap.