Barratt profits almost halve, Computacenter flags expectation-beating results

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 54 points higher on Wednesday, having closed down 1.7% at 5,862.05 on Tuesday,

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Full year profits at house builder Barratt almost halved as the coronavirus lockdown hit sales in the fourth quarter, although it reported a sharp rise in completions in the new year as restrictions were eased. The company on Thursday said pre-tax profits fell 45.9% to £491m with completions falling by a third to 12,604. No dividend was declared. Barratt said total forward sales, including joint ventures at August 23 stood at 15,660 homes compared to 13,064 a year ago.

Computacenter said annual results were likely to be materially better than the company's previous expectations. The computer services company said successful trading in the first half of the year had continued in the first two months of the second half. Computacenter reports first-half results on 9 September.

Newspaper round-up

The morning flow of commuters arriving at Canary Wharf, London’s financial district, was a trickle on Tuesday rather than the torrent traditionally associated with the end of summer return to work. Sparse numbers of suited and smartly dressed workers emerged from the underground station, clutching their morning takeaway coffees, destined for the corporate headquarters of banks, financial services companies and law firms. – Guardian

The UK has plummeted down the global broadband speed rankings to rate as one of the slowest countries in Europe, with a typical household taking more than twice as long to download a movie than the average home in western Europe. Britain has dropped 13 places in an annual study ranking the average broadband speeds of 221 countries and territories, placing it 47th fastest in the world. Last year, the UK ranked 34th for average broadband speed. - Guardian

Australia suffered its worst economic downturn on record last quarter as it battled the coronavirus crisis, while fresh outbreaks threaten to upend an already bumpy road to recovery and pile pressure on the government to keep fiscal taps open. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed the country's AUD 2trn (£1.1trn) economy shrank 7 percent in the three months to the end of June from a 0.3 percent decline in the March quarter. – Telegraph

Britain will be at increased risk of blackouts under Ofgem plans to cut investment in energy networks, the boss of National Grid has claimed. John Pettigrew warned that power lines in parts of the country would start to “decay” after the energy regulator rejected its proposals to bill consumers for replacing them. – The Times

Bidders for Debenhams were told to display their interest in rescuing the department stores chain by the end of yesterday as doubts grow about the future of the business. Advisers at Lazard, the investment bank running the sale process, told interested suitors that they needed to submit bids by 5pm yesterday. An insider said that the process was a “checkpoint” to verify there was genuine interest in rescuing the business. – The Times

US close

Wall Street closed on a positive note on Tuesday, clawing back some of Monday’s losses after its best August in more than 30 years, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq got off to a strong start on the back of another rally in the sector.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.76% at 28,645.66, while the S&P 500 added 0.75% to 3,526.65 and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.39% firmer at 11,939.67.

The Dow closed 215.61 points higher on Tuesday, reversing some of the previous session's losses that came as Salesforce, Amgen and Honeywell replaced longtime components of the index ExxonMobil, Pfizer and Raytheon Technologies.

Investors were digesting the Institute for Supply Management's latest services sector purchasing managers' index after the open on Tuesday, with the index advancing from a reading of 54.2 for July to 56.0 in August.

A key subindex tracking companies' new orders jumped from 61.5 to 67.6, while another linked to order backlogs increased from 51.8 to 54.6.

The subindex tied to staffing levels remained beneath the 50.0-point mark at 46.4.