EasyJet swings to annual loss, Experian revenue grows in first half

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 17 points lower on Tuesday, having closed up 1.66% on Monday at 6,421.29.

Stocks to watch

Low-cost airline easyJet on Tuesday swung to a massive £1.3bn annual loss, revealing the full extent of the havoc caused by the coronavirus pandemic as capacity almost halved. The pre-tax loss compares with a £430m profit a year ago. Revenue fell 52% to £3bn. The carrier also announced the sale and leaseback of a further 10 A320 aircraft with SMBC Aviation Capital generating around £280.2m to bolster its balance sheet. Based on current travel, easyJet said it expected to fly no more than 20% of planned capacity for the first quarter of the 2021 financial year.

Homeserve reported revenue growth of 17% in its first half on Tuesday, to £536.7m, which it said was driven by strong growth in North America and the inclusion of revenue from eLocal, of which it acquired 79% in November 2019. The FTSE 100 firm said its statutory profit before tax fell 49% to £10.1m, although its adjusted operating profit was up 17% to £44.2m, It declared a 7% increase in the interim dividend to 6.2p, which it put down to the company’s performance and the board’s confidence in its growth prospects.

Global information services giant Experian delivered a 2% rise in organic revenue growth for the six months ending on 30 September. For the second quarter, organic sales were ahead by 5%, which was at the top of the firm's own guidance, thanks largely to growth from North America and Brazil, which offset the hit to revenue from Covid-19 in other geographies. On a statutory basis, revenue growth printed at up by 3% to £2.49bn with profits before tax down 5% to £458m. The interim payout meanwhile was kept at 36.7 US cents. Looking ahead to the third quarter, management guided towards organic revenue growth of 3-5%.

Newspaper round-up

The government is exploring options for dealing with a £40bn black hole in the public finances, which would result from a proposed ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars within a decade. Boris Johnson is expected to announce this week the cut-off date for the ban will be brought forward by five years to 2030, in a step designed to underscore the government’s commitment to a green economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. - Guardian

Workers at Heathrow are to strike for four days in December over “fire and rehire” plans that have cut the wages of long-serving staff, in an increasingly bitter dispute. The Unite union said the action by frontline employees would effectively close London’s main airport for periods in the run-up to Christmas, although Heathrow said it would keep operating despite the strikes. - Guardian

A top business lobby group has said that new security laws restricting foreign takeovers risk creating a “chilling effect” on investment in the British economy. The Institute of Directors (IoD) warned that proposals to force foreign investors in UK companies or assets to get government approval for transactions could stifle growth by damaging the country’s reputation as a good place to do business. - Telegraph

Companies face renewed pressure to rein in excessive boardroom pay after a powerful investor group said it would single out businesses that handed bosses exorbitant pensions and warned against big post-pandemic bonuses. The Investment Association urged companies yesterday to bring the retirement benefits that their bosses receive into line with the arrangements for the majority of their workforces. - The Times

The founder of The Hut Group is to receive one of the biggest payouts in UK corporate history after the recently listed online retailer’s share price rose sharply. Matthew Moulding, 48, who started the technology company in 2004, will receive at least £830 million in stock after the share price rose to hit its target, set out when it floated on the London Stock Exchange in September at 500p a share and a value of £5.4 billion. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks turned in solid gains on Monday as the Dow Jones registered a record close thanks to further positive vaccine headlines.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.60% at 29,950.44, while the S&P 500 was 1.16% firmer at 3,626.91 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.80% stronger at 11,924.13.

The Dow closed 470.63 points higher on Monday, extending gains recorded in last week's vaccine-fuelled rally despite US Covid-19 cases passing 11.0m over the weekend, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Although the country had recently hit a fresh daily record of 184,000 new daily cases, Moderna was in focus on Monday after revealing that its vaccine candidate had shown itself to be 94.5% effective at protecting people from Covid-19 and was proven to last for up to 30 days in household refrigerators and at room temperature for as much as 12 hours.

While Pfizer and BioNTech may have directed much of last week's limelight away from the US presidential election with news that their Covid-19 vaccine candidate was as much as 90% effective in treating the coronavirus, BioNTech chief executive Ugur Sahin has now also claimed that transmission of Covid-19 would be reduced by "maybe 50%" following the vaccine rollout, leading to a "dramatic reduction of the pandemic spread".