Sage lifts dividend, Hochschild reinstates its distribution

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open four points higher on Friday, having closed down 0.8% on Thursday at 6,334.35.

Stocks to watch

Accounting software firm Sage lifted its dividend as it reported an 8.5% rise in organic recurring revenue rose to £1.6bn, driven by growth from existing and new customers, principally in North America and Northern Europe. The company said the result was underpinned by software subscription revenue growth of 20.5% to £1.14bn. Sage guided for organic recurring revenue growth for fiscal 2021 to be 3% - 5%, weighted towards the second half of the year. The dividend was increased 2% to 17.25p a share.

Hochschild Mining reinstated its dividend and said operating costs in the current financial year would be lower than previous guidance. The FTSE 250 miner's board approved an interim dividend of 4 cents a share at a meeting on 19 November, Hochschild said in an update. The company had scrapped its final dividend for 2019 and postponed its interim payout because of Covid-19. Hochschild also said it was on track to meet revised production guidance for the year to the end of December and that cost of operations would be lower than earlier guidance at between $1,200 and $1,250 per gold equivalent ounce or $14.0 and $14.5 per silver equivalent ounce.

AstraZeneca said on Friday that ‘Imfinzi’, or durvalumab, has been approved in the US for an additional dosing option - a 1,500mg fixed dose every four weeks - in the approved indications of unresectable stage-3 non-small cell lung cancer after chemoradiation therapy, and previously-treated advanced bladder cancer. The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant said the new option was consistent with the approved Imfinzi dosing in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, and would be available to patients weighing more than 30 kilograms, as an alternative to the approved weight-based dosing of 10mg per kilogram every two weeks.

Newspaper round-up

The fashion chains Peacocks, Jaeger, Austin Reed and Jacques Vert have collapsed into administration, putting nearly 4,800 jobs at risk. The retailers are all part of entrepreneur Philip Day’s Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group (EWM), which warned last month it was on the brink of collapse. The Cardiff-based budget fashion chain Peacocks, which Albert Peacock founded as a penny bazaar in Warrington, Cheshire, in 1884, employs 4,369 staff across its 423 stores. - Guardian

Marks & Spencer will keep 400 stores open until midnight in Christmas week as desperate high street retailers scramble to recoup billions of pounds of sales lost to lockdown restrictions. The UK’s biggest clothing retailer said its “longest-ever” store opening hours would kick in on Monday 21 December, with two-thirds of its 600 shops opening until midnight for a run of three days. Unlike many of its rivals M&S’ shops are currently open; however; government rules mean it has been forced to close off its clothing floors. - Guardian

Starling says it has become the first digital challenger bank to be profitable, as its rivals continue to record large losses. The online bank, founded by Anne Boden in 2014 after she spent 30 years working for “boring big banks”, has made a loss every month since its launch but says, on an operating basis, it will post a £0.8m profit for October. - Telegraph

Minimum unit pricing for alcohol is reasonably effective at targeting heavy drinkers but comes at a cost of hindering competition and reducing tax revenues, research suggests. According to the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies, a minimum unit price, combined with a more coherent set of taxes on alcohol, would be just as well targeted at heavy drinkers and would limit the fall in revenue for the exchequer. - The Times

The Hinkley Point B nuclear power station will close by July 2022 at the latest, EDF has announced, triggering renewed calls to invest in replacement reactors. The Somerset plant started generating in 1976 and was due to close in 2016 but in 2012 EDF secured an extension until March 2023. However, the reactor developed cracks in its graphite core, which has limited its operation. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Thursday, even amid the ever-growing number of fresh Covid-19 cases across the US, and a surprise increase in jobless claims.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.15% at 29,483.23, as the S&P 500 rose 0.39% to 3,581.87, and the Nasdaq Composite finished ahead 0.87% at 11,904.71.

The Dow closed 44.81 points higher on Thursday, clawing back some of the losses it recorded in the previous session after the US coronavirus death toll topped 250,000.

Headlines doing the rounds on Thursday were mixed, with Pfizer announcing that a final analysis showed that its vaccine candidate was 95% effective against the coronavirus.

At the same time, New York City authorities announced they would close schools as a result of the rising number of new cases, which had now topped 161,160 across the country, up 26% week-on-week, according to Johns Hopkins University.