Currys holds annual guidance, IntegraFin posts solid results

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 77 points higher on Thursday, having closed up 0.-8% on Thursday at 7,548.44.

Stocks to watch

Electrical retailer Currys held annual guidance as interim losses narrowed and its Nordics unit reported an improvement in gross margins. The company posted a loss before tax of £46m, compared with a loss of £548m a year earlier. UK like-for-like revenue fell 3% to £2.2bn.

IntegraFin reported a solid full-year financial performance on Thursday, with record Transact investment platform funds under direction of £55bn, strong growth with net inflows of £2.7bn, a 1% increase in group revenue to £134.9m, and underlying group profit before tax of £63m. The company also declared a second interim dividend of 7p per ordinary share, maintaining a total dividend for the year of 10.2p per share, with financial guidance for 2024 remaining unchanged.

Newspaper round-up

Tighter rules are needed to ensure that the imported “used” cooking oil that airlines hope will power cleaner flights is not in fact virgin palm oil, campaigners have warned. About 80% of waste oil is imported to create biofuels that are mostly still used in cars, vans and lorries despite growing demand from aviation. About 60% of those imports come from China. – Guardian

Etsy is laying off 225 employees in a bid to cut costs as it grapples with “very challenging” economic headwinds. The online retail company will reduce its headcount by about 11% after deciding that a “leaner, more agile” workforce would help shore up growth. – Guardian

The phaseout of gas boilers will push up household energy bills from as early as 2026 under plans to reach net zero, Ofgem has warned. The energy watchdog on Wednesday said consumers face paying at least £43 extra per year through network charges on their gas bill from 2026, under proposals to manage the shift away from gas heating. – Telegraph

The former boss of BP will lose up to £32m in pay after the oil giant’s board found he knowingly misled them about a string of romantic affairs he had with colleagues. Bernard Looney resigned in September after admitting he had not been “fully transparent” about his past relationships when previously quizzed about the matter. – Telegraph

One of Britain’s leading captains of ­industry over the past decade and a sometime adviser to Conservative prime ministers has been appointed by the ­Labour Party to lead a rethink of rail infrastructure before the next general election. Jurgen Maier is a former UK head of Siemens, the German multinational, which employs thousands of people in Britain and is a leading player in the railway supply chain as a signalling and communications expert. – The Times

US close

US stocks surged on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve opened the door to three interest-rate cuts in 2024, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing at its highest closing level in history.

After a tentative start, with markets mostly flat for most of the session, Wall Street's three main indices surged ahead at 1400 ET after the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee's two-day meeting in Washington.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all finished 1.4% higher, with the Dow closing at 37,090.24, topping the 37,000 mark for the first time ever, with just two stocks on the index in the red.

The Fed chose to keep the federal funds rate at the 5.25-5.5% level, as widely expected by markets. But the committee noted that economic activity had "slowed" in the fourth quarter, with job gains moderating and the rate of inflation easing.

Accordingly, the so-called dot plot graph – which shows individual policy makers' expectations each quarter of where they think interest rates will be over the coming few years – shows rates ending 2024 at the 4.625% median average level.

This implies three separate 25 basis-point cuts before the end of next year, compared to just two cuts in September's dotplot.