Bodycote reports jump in profits, Diploma raises £236m

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 53 points higher on Friday, having closed up 0.89% on Thursday at 7,410.03.

Stocks to watch

Bodycote reported a jump in full-year profit and revenue on Friday as it said that permanent price increases had fully recovered labour and general cost inflation. In the year to the end of December 2022, headline operating profit rose 19% to £112.2m, on revenues of £743.6m, up 20.8% on the previous year. Statutory pre-tax profit rose to 95.3m from £77.5m and headline pre-tax profit increased to £105.5m from £88.5m.

Diploma said it had successfully priced a non-pre-emptive placing of 9,297,005 new shares at 2,525p each on Friday, raising gross proceeds of £235m. It said directors subscribed for an additional 3,960 new shares, and retail investors subscribed for 50,000 new shares via the PrimaryBid platform, bringing the total proceeds of the capital raise to approximately £236m. The new shares being issued would represent 7.5% of Diploma’s existing issued share capital prior to the offer.

Newspaper round-up

The chief executive of Royal Mail has been accused of “incompetence or cluelessness” by MPs calling on the regulator Ofcom to investigate whether the company broke legal service requirements. Parliament’s cross-party business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) committee has asked the watchdog to investigate a suspected breach of the universal service obligation (USO), which requires the postal operator to deliver letters nationwide six days a week. – Guardian

Payments providers have been ordered by the City watchdog to strengthen their controls as fears of another financial crisis continue to haunt markets. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) threatened to shut down so-called shadow banks – which offer deposit and transfer services without a banking licence – unless they “ensure your customers' money is safe”. – Telegraph

A British challenger bank that has championed a four-day working week is seeking £150m in fresh funding from investors. Atom Bank, which has no branches and serves customers through a smartphone app, has reportedly approached investors about raising more money after previously raising £30m in November. – Telegraph

A £205 million annual funding package announced yesterday for the next batch of renewable power projects will be insufficient to spur required investment, the government has been told. Proposed wind, solar, tidal and geothermal electricity projects are expected to compete in this year’s auction for contracts that guarantee them a fixed price for electricity. – The Times

A top five shareholder in British American Tobacco has called for the cigarette group to move its primary listing to New York. Rajiv Jain, founder of the $92 billion US-based investment firm GQG Partners, has urged bosses at the FTSE 100-listed owner of Lucky Strike and Dunhill cigarettes to shift its listing from London, which dates back to 1912. - The Times

US close

Wall Street ended on a high note on Thursday, as major banks deposited a combined $30bn with troubled lender First Republic Bank.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 1.17% at 32,246.55, while the S&P 500 rose by 1.76% to reach 3,960.28.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite saw the biggest gains of the day, closing up 2.48% at 11,717.28.

The deposit of $30 billion into First Republic Bank was confirmed by a group of 11 banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.

Each of them confirmed they would be depositing $5bn each into the troubled lender.