Bunzl flags flat revenue growth, Legal & General appoints new CEO
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 30 points lower on Thursday, having closed up 0.1% on Wednesday at 7,602.74.
Stocks to watch
Specialist international distribution and services group Bunzl said it expected underlying revenue growth in the first half of the year to be broadly flat. It added that group adjusted operating margin was expected to be around the same as the first six months of 2022. Revenue was expected to increase by 4 - 5% at actual exchange rates, and up to 1% on a constant currency basis.
Legal & General said on Thursday that it has appointed António Simões as chief executive officer. Simões - who succeeds Sir Nigel Wilson - joins from Banco Santander, where he has been regional head of Europe since September 2020. He leads Santander's businesses in the UK, Spain, Portugal and Poland, working across retail and commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth management and insurance.
Newspaper round-up
UK businesses have improved female representation on their boards, research shows, but two-fifths of FTSE 100 firms still do not have a woman in one of their top four executive roles. The proportion of women on the boards of the 585 FTSE all-share listed companies has risen over the past year from 36% to 40%, according to the analysis of Companies House data. – Guardian
Beyoncé has been blamed for keeping inflation stubbornly high in Sweden after more than 40,000 fans flocked to Stockholm last month to watch the singer begin her world tour. Economists said the artist, who launched her Renaissance tour in the Swedish capital with two sold-out concerts, helped to drive a surge in hotel and accommodation costs. – Telegraph
An influential group of MPs has ordered the City watchdog to reveal the extent of its investigation into Odey Asset Management following “deeply troubling” allegations made against the firm’s founder. In a letter to bosses at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Harriett Baldwin, chairman of the Treasury committee, called for the regulator to disclose more information about its oversight of the scandal-hit hedge fund. – Telegraph
Dawood Pervez says tongue-in-cheek that Britain’s thousands of local convenience stores are as beloved as the country’s pubs and bridleways but he’s deadly serious in his commitment to promote and protect the wholesale network that supports them. The Old Etonian, and a lawyer by training, is the son of Sir Anwar Pervez, the immigrant founder of Bestway, Britain’s second-biggest wholesaler after Tesco’s Booker. – The Times
Equity finance provision for small and medium-sized companies fell sharply in the second half of last year as venture capital firms responded to economic strife and a sell-off in technology stocks, according to the government’s economic development agency. A report by the British Business Bank said that 2022 was a tale of “two halves”, with a record level of investment in businesses in the first two quarters. However, concerns about potential overvaluations, a lack of sale opportunities and rising interest rates and inflation caused a 47 per cent reduction in investment in the second half of the year compared with the first. – The Times
US close
Wall Street demonstrated a mixed performance on Wednesday, as the US stock market reacted to the Federal Reserve's decision to halt the cycle of interest rate hikes.
Despite the pause, however, investors were warned by the central bank that the tightening cycle was not completely off the table.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.68% at 33,979.33 , while the S&P 500 managed gains of 0.08% to settle at 4,372.59.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite posted gains of 0.39% to 13,626.48.
On the currency front, the dollar was last 0.11% stronger on sterling to trade at 79.05p, while it inched up 0.04% on the common currency to 92.37 euro cents.