Taylor Wimpey reports better-than-expected second half, TP Icap revenue falls in third quarter

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The FTSE 100 is expected to open 70 points higher on Monday, having closed up 0.07% on Friday, at 5,910.02.

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Taylor Wimpey said full-year results would be at the upper end of expectations after better-than-expecting trading in the second half. The house builder said that with sites operating at or near to normal capacity and “a strong order book and resilient customer demand we now expect 2021 completions to be between 85-90% of 2019 levels”.

TP Icap said it expected annual revenue at constant currency in line with the year before after income fell in the third quarter. Revenue fell 19% to £388m in the three months to the end of September and by 16% excluding currency movements. The interdealer broker said transactions were particularly subdued in the third quarter but that volatility from the US election and Brexit would support full-year revenue.

Bunzl has agreed to purchase Brazil-based personal protection equipment (PPE) distributor SP Equipamentos, it announced on Monday. The FTSE 100 distribution and outsourcing company did not reveal the price being paid, but said SP Equipamentos had revenue of BRL 143m (£22m) in 2019. Completion was expected at the end of November.

Newspaper round-up

Britain’s economy is set for a pre-Christmas slump with further job losses and shop closures, despite government measures to protect businesses during the latest Covid-19 restrictions. Surveys of business activity reveal a sharp decline as tough new restrictions were launched across the UK amid the second coronavirus wave, setting the stage for a difficult winter ahead as the economy plunges into reverse. - Guardian

The Guardian understands that small firms that successfully received a bounce back loan from non-bank lender Tide are struggling to secure further loans to cope with the second lockdown after the finance company ran out of funds in the summer. Unless Tide can secure fresh private investment or cheap funding for loans that are only available to licensed banks, it will remain closed to new business and the small firms affected must find alternative funding. If Tide fails to find new backers, attempts to secure a loan are likely to be fruitless as most accredited lenders have completely shut to new customers. - Guardian

Twenty-nine MPs and peers have written to Rishi Sunak to urge him to scrap air passenger taxes for a year or risk losing nearly half the air routes that could be otherwise saved and 8,000 jobs. In their letter to the Chancellor, exclusively revealed to the Telegraph, the 29 - nearly half of whom are Conservative including three former ministers - said that the move could encourage an extra 21 million passengers to travel once the UK came out of lockdown. - Telegraph

Mike Ashley’s Frasers has hit out at being “frozen out” of the auction for three Edinburgh Woollen Mill brands. A source close to Frasers, which owns Sports Direct, House of Fraser and Evans Cycles, said they expressed interest in Jaeger, Peacocks and Edinburgh Woollen Mill brands, part of Philip Day’s retail empire, which have been put up for sale. The Edinburgh Woollen Mill brand collapsed on Friday. - Telegraph

The world’s biggest credit ratings agency is importing an American service to Britain in a move that it says could increase the scores of millions of people and enable them to borrow money more cheaply. Experian is to launch a service in the UK through which personal borrowers can opt into a system that will allow it to take into account factors not used at present when assessing creditworthiness. - The Times

US close

Markets finished in a mixed state on Wall Street on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.24% to 28,323.40.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.03% to 3,509.44, while the Nasdaq Composite eked out gains of 0.04% to 11,895.23.