PageGroup lowers guidance, Ashmore AuM rises in December quarter

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The FTSE 100 is expected to open 0.64% higher on Monday, having closed up 0.64% on Friday at 7,624.93.

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Recruitment specialist PageGroup said 2023 full year operating profit was expected to be slightly below previous guidance as fourth-quarter profits fell amid a global hiring slowdown. Fourth-quarter group gross profit fell 8.9% to £237.7m year on year. Trading conditions in Asia, the UK or the US saw no improvement, while trading conditions deteriorated in Europe. Full year operating profit was now expected to be slightly below previous guidance of £120m - £125m. The company also axed 224 jobs to cut costs.

Ashmore Group reported a quarter-end update for December on Monday, with assets under management (AuM) increasing by $2.3bn. The company said that growth was driven by a positive investment performance of $3.9bn, partially offset by net outflows of $1.6bn. Its net outflows decreased compared to prior quarters due to improving global macroeconomic conditions, with equities attracting net inflows, and fixed income outflows showing no significant patterns.

Home construction company Crest Nicholson has delivered a profit warning as a result of higher-than-expected costs as it announced an additional one-off charge from a legal claim. The group said that adjusted pre-tax profit for 2023 is now expected to be £41m, lower than the £45-50m range given in November.

Newspaper round-up

UK house prices are on track to beat forecasts of a decline in 2024, a leading estate agent has said, as a mortgage pricing war and expectations of Bank of England interest rate cuts rekindle the property market. After a year of sustained price falls in 2023, the global property consultancy Knight Frank said it was updating its forecast for UK house prices to rise by 3% in 2024, up from an earlier estimate of a 4% drop. – Guardian

The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes to $869bn (£681.5bn) since 2020, while the world’s poorest 60% – almost 5 billion people – have lost money. The details come in a report by Oxfam as the world’s richest people gather from Monday in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum meeting of political leaders, corporate executives and the super-rich. – Guardian

Britain’s sprawling gas network is still reliant on a fleet of ageing aircraft engines, some stripped from 1960s RAF Lightning fighter jets, it has emerged. Jon Butterworth, chief executive of National Gas, said many of the engines that drive gas through the system date back decades, some to the Cold War, and now need millions of pounds spent on replacing them. – Telegraph

The billionaire Tory donor Alan Howard shared a £268m pay out from his hedge fund last year as bets on interest rates reaped dividends for the company. The pay out by Brevan Howard Asset Management was more than three times the £82m shared a year earlier, company filings showed and the biggest since 2019 when £440m was paid out to partners. – Telegraph

Scottish Power will spend a record amount on upgrading ageing electricity transmission lines that will allow more renewable energy to be transported south of the border from Scotland. The ten-year investment plan is the first in an expected wave of spending set to be announced this year by the three big operators of Britain’s power lines, seen as vital if the country is to meet a target of net-zero emissions by 2050. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street closed in a mixed state on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.31% at 37,592.98.

The S&P 500, meanwhile, added 0.08% to 4,783.83, and the Nasdaq Composite finished ahead 0.02% at 14,972.76.