Lloyds reports flat annual profits, TBC Bank describes 'robust' year

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 29 points lower on Wednesday, having closed down 0.46% on Tuesday at 7,977.75.

Stocks to watch

Lloyds Bank reported flat annual profits with higher net income and lower costs were offset by impairment charges due to the worsening economic outlook. The UK bank on Wednesday said full year pre-tax profits came in at £6.9bn and added that it would start another £2bn share buyback. Net income rose 14% to £18bn and impairment charges for potential bad debts surged to £1.5bn compared with a release in 2021 of £1.3bn.

TBC Bank reported “robust” profitability for 2022 on Wednesday, with net profit of GEL 1bn up 24% year-on-year, despite a one-off tax charge of GEL 113m. The company described strong income generation with operating income growing by 43%, and efficient cost management with a cost-to-income ratio improving by 4.2 percentage points to 33.4%. Additionally, the bank's asset quality remained strong with a cost of risk of 0.7%, while its Uzbek operations generated positive returns, with operating income and net profit growth of 77% and 85% year-on-year, respectively.

Media group Future said on Wednesday that it has appointed Jon Steinberg as its new chief executive officer with effect from 3 April. Steinberg will succeed Zillah Byng-Thorne, who announced her intention to stand down last September. She will step down from her current role on 31 March but will remain available to support Steinberg over a two-month transition period to ensure a smooth handover of responsibilities.

Newspaper round-up

Wizz Air has been named the worst short-haul airline by UK passengers. Passengers surveyed by consumer group Which? gave the Hungary-based carrier one star out of five for boarding experience, cabin environment and seat comfort. – Guardian

Google could be forced to take responsibility for videos that YouTube recommends to its users if a landmark legal challenge against the internet giant succeeds in America’s top court. The company on Tuesday defended itself in a Supreme Court hearing, the culmination of a years-long legal campaign from the family of a victim of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks who say that YouTube recommended extremist content to users. – Telegraph

JP Morgan has restricted traders' use of ChatGPT as employers grow increasingly nervous over sensitive data being exposed. JP Morgan is among investment banks to have placed temporary curbs around access to the chatbot tools. Accenture, the tech consultancy which has more than 700,000 workers, has also warned staff over exposing client information to ChatGPT’s tools. – Telegraph

A government-backed review on female entrepreneurship has pledged to create three million places for women to access business support over the next three years. The Rose review, led by Dame Alison Rose, chief executive of NatWest Group, which was launched by the Treasury in 2019, said in its latest annual progress report that women had established 151,603 companies, up by 6,332 on the previous year. They represented 20 percent of all incorporations, compared with 16.7 per cent in 2018. – The Times

US close

Major indices were firmly in the red at the end of trading on Tuesday as Treasury yields continued to rise.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.06% at 33,129.59, while the S&P 500 lost 2.0% to 3,997.34 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 2.50% weaker at 11,492.30.

The Dow closed a whopping 697.10 points lower on Tuesday after Wall Street trading was suspended on Monday in observance of the Presidents Day long weekend.

In focus on Tuesday, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed to 3.956%, while the two-year note advanced to 4.725% - building on gains recorded last week as traders digested hotter-than-expected inflation data that further exacerbated recession fears.

On the macro front, home selling activity in the US slowed for a twelfth straight month at the start of 2023. According to the National Association of Realtors, existing-home sales fell by 0.7% month-on-month in January to reach an annual rate of 4.0m - short of consensus estimates for a reading of 4.1m. In comparison to one year earlier, existing-home sales were down by 36.9%, while prices were up 1.3% at $359,000.