BHP to widen coal exit plans, Persimmon hammered by Covid-19 crisis

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 37 points lower on Tuesday, having closed up 0.61% at 6,127.44 on Monday.

Stocks to watch

BHP Group said it would widen plans to exit coal operations and review opportunities to offload older oil and gas assets as it reported a drop in full year profits. The mining giant said it planned to sell, or spinoff, its 80% share in the BHP Mitsui Coal joint venture, which owns two coking coal operations in Australia, along with exiting thermal coal mines and some oil and gas operations. Full year profits fell 4% to $9.1bn, as higher iron ore prices offset the impact of the coronavirus impact, but below analysts expectations.

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic hammered Persimmon both on its top and bottom lines during the first half of 2020. Net revenues dropped from £1.75bn one year ago to £1.19bn and profits before tax were reduced from £509.3m to £292.4m. Nonetheless, according to the homebuilder's chief executive, Dave Jenkinson, by period end, build rates had returned to their pre-Covid 19 levels. He also sounded a positive note on the outlook and told shareholders had begun the second half in "excellent" fashion.

TI Fluid Systems reported a 30.7% fall in its first-half revenue at constant currency on Tuesday, to €1.18bn (£1.07bn), as its adjusted EBIT narrowed by €145.5m to €27.6m. The FTSE 250 company said its margin was 7.8 percentage points lower for the six months ended 30 June at 2.3%, while free cash flow improved €15.7m to €34.9m. Its board declared no dividend for the period.

Newspaper round-up

Rail fares must be cut to entice travellers back on to trains after Covid-19, according to the passenger watchdog, which has urged the UK government to subsidise similar money-saving deals to those for the restaurant sector. Transport Focus said a radical shake up of the fares system should go beyond a fares freeze to include cut-price deals and flexible season tickets for people who may in future only be commuting part-time. – Guardian

Redundancies at theatre companies owned by the leading west end producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh are set to total more than 850. It emerged over the weekend that Mackintosh, the producer of shows including Les Misérables and Hamilton, had notified staff of mass redundancies. The company has declined to give any numbers but the entertainment union Bectu said the figure was around 185 for Cameron Mackintosh Ltd and 669 for Delfont Mackintosh. – Guardian

The company behind the video game Fortnite is taking emergency legal action against Apple after it said the tech giant had blocked it from developing software for the iPhone, a move that would cause ripples across the games industry. – Telegraph

The cash sitting in Britain’s biggest investment platform swelled by £2.5 billion in the first six months of this year as regulatory pressure grew on firms to return uninvested money to customers. Results this month from Hargreaves Lansdown show that cash accounted for £13.6 billion of the assets under administration on its platform at the end of June, up from the £10.7 billion a year earlier and £11.1 billion at the end of December. About 80 per cent is understood to be held in tax-efficient wrappers such as Isas. – The Times

Senior Conservatives have urged the government to block any move by TikTok to move its headquarters to London amid reports of a ministerial rift over the company’s plans. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former cabinet minister and Tory party leader, called on the government to “refuse this move” as ByteDance, the popular video-sharing app’s Chinese owner, considers office locations, including Britain. – The Times

US close

Wall Street trading finished in a mixed state on Monday, amid a continued stalemate between lawmakers in regards to further stimulus payments and heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.31% at 27,844.91, while the S&P 500 added 0.27% to 3,381.99 and the Nasdaq Composite was 1% higher at 11,129.73.

The Dow closed 86.11 points lower on Monday, reversing gains recorded at the end of last week as the blue-chip index flirted with an all-time high for most of the week but fell short.

Monday's main focus was much the same as the prior week, with investors firmly fixated on stalled talks around another batch of Covid-19 stimulus payments to US citizens.

Democrats proposed to send more than $900bn to states and municipalities in a single bill, while a counteroffer from the Republican Party made no mention of any additional aid for states and local governments.