Balfour Beatty expecting flat profits, Beazley reports strong growth

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 25 points higher on Friday, having closed down 0.14% on Thursday at 7,730.58.

Stocks to watch

Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty said it expected annual profits to be flat, with current trading in line with expectations. In a trading update ahead of its yearly shareholders meeting, the company said its order book was £17bn compared with £17.4bn at the end of December. New projects added to the order book in the first quarter of 2023 include a £297m seven-year East Sussex road maintenance contract, a $242m design-build highways contract in North Carolina and $230m of data centres in the US Northwest.

Beazley posted strong growth for the first quarter and reiterated its full-year guidance. Gross premiums grew by 12% to $1.37bn with net premiums ahead by 24% to 1.07bn. Premium rates on renewal business jumped by 10%, while net income from investments came in at $104m. The specialist insurer also expressed confidence in its outlook for the first half, adding that it was confident that it would hit its full-year guidance.

Newspaper round-up

Supermarkets have told ministers that food prices have peaked and will start falling significantly in the coming months. The Treasury held a call with leading supermarkets after Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, blamed the “very big underlying shock” for stubbornly high inflation. - The Times

The Treasury will be able to slash the basic rate of income tax by 2p if Britons who left jobs during the pandemic return to work, a Cabinet minister has declared. Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, who is responsible for overseeing the Government’s drive to boost employment numbers, said there were still 400,000 fewer workers than before Covid. A 2p cut in the basic rate of income tax would mean a fall from 20 per cent to 18 per cent. - Telegraph

Rail services across Britain will be severely disrupted on Friday as train drivers stage the first of the latest wave of planned strikes in a long-running pay dispute. Members of the drivers’ union Aslef will strike for 24 hours across virtually all the big passenger operators in England, stopping some major intercity and commuter services entirely. - Guardian

President Zelensky has been blocked by the BBC and other international broadcasters from addressing the world at the Eurovision Song Contest. A request by the Ukrainian leader to make a surprise video appearance during the final, in which he was expected to urge the global audience of 160 million to continue their support for his country in the face of Russian aggression, was turned down by event owners. - The Times

Landlords in England will be able to evict tenants for antisocial behaviour more easily as part of a wider package of reforms to the rental market, after heavy lobbying by industry organisations and Conservative backbenchers. Michael Gove will use the renters’ reform bill, which could be introduced to the Commons as soon as next week, to strengthen landlords’ rights when it comes to dealing with alleged antisocial behaviour. - Guardian

US close

Wall Street experienced a mixed close on Thursday, with the Dow leading the decline after disappointing results from Disney.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.66% to close at 33,309.51, while the S&P 500 registered a smaller loss, closing 0.17% lower at 4,130.62.

In contrast, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.18% to end the day at 12,328.51.

Investors were also reacting to news of the Bank of England's latest interest rate hike from across the pond.

Currency markets saw the dollar gain against its major counterparts, last rising 0.9% on sterling to trade at 79.91p, and increasing 0.59% against the euro to 91.6 euro cents.