Greggs forecasts £15m loss, Informa ends 2020 in line with guidance

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 56 points higher on Wednesday, having closed up 0.61% on Tuesday at 6,612.25.

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High Street bakery chain Greggs said profits would not return to pre-Covid levels until 2022 at the earliest as it forecast a £15m loss this year and revealed 820 job losses. The company on Wednesday said fourth quarter like-for-like sales at its managed stores were 81.1% of 2019 levels, slumping to £293m from £344m. Fiscal year total sales fell to £811m from £1.16bn a year ago. "Looking ahead, the significant uncertainty over the duration of social restrictions, along with the impact of higher unemployment levels, makes it difficult to predict performance. However, we do not expect that profits will return to pre-COVID levels until 2022 at the earliest," the company said.

Informa said 2020 results would be in line with guidance as the company’s subscription businesses helped offset the impact of Covid-19 on its events operations. Annual revenue will be between £1.65bn and £1.68bn and adjusted operating profit will be £250m-£270m, Informa said. The FTSE 100 company also announced John Rishton would replace Chairman Derek Mapp at the annual general meeting in June.

AstraZeneca announced on Wednesday that ‘Farxiga’, or dapagliflozin, has been granted Priority Review status in the United States for the treatment of new or worsening chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adults with and without type-2 diabetes. The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant said the Prescription Drug User Fee Action date - the day the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) targets for their regulatory decision - would be during the second quarter of 2021. It explained that the FDA grants Priority Review status to regulatory submissions for medicines that offered “significant advances” over available options.

Newspaper round-up

The coronavirus pandemic pushed UK car sales in 2020 down to the lowest level since 1992, the biggest annual slump since the second world war despite surging sales of electric cars, according to industry data. Sales fell by 29% during the year to about 1.63m, preliminary figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed. - Guardian

Bosses of top British companies will have made more money by teatime on Wednesday than the average UK worker will earn in the entire year, according to an independent analysis of the vast gap in pay between chief executives and everyone else. The chief executives of FTSE 100 companies are paid a median average of £3.6m a year, which works out at 115 times the £31,461 collected by full-time UK workers on average, according to research by the High Pay Centre think tank. - Guardian

Britain is on course to borrow a record £450bn this year after Boris Johnson plunged the country back into a national lockdown, economists have warned. The latest Covid shutdown looks set to shatter the Office for Budget Responsibility’s £394bn borrowing forecast for the current financial year, made just six weeks ago. It will raise fresh fears that future generations will be saddled with a massive burden of state debt. - Telegraph

Paperchase is on the brink of becoming the first high street victim of Covid-19 this year as England’s third lockdown in less than 12 months threatens a fresh wave of business failures. About 1,500 jobs are at risk at the stationery and greetings card retailer after it filed notice to appoint administrators from PwC. - The Times

Business groups have warned that Rishi Sunak’s latest support package will not be enough to help millions of businesses and self-employed people to survive the latest lockdown. Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are to receive one-off grants worth a combined £4 billion to help them through the latest stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the chancellor has been told that the help will be insufficient to prevent swathes of people from losing their livelihoods. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Tuesday following a sharp sell-off in the previous session, driven by some stronger-than-expected manufacturing data.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.55% at 30,391.60, while the S&P 500 was 0.71% firmer at 3,726.86 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.95% stronger at 12,818.96.

The Dow closed 167.71 points higher on Tuesday, cutting into losses recorded in the previous session.

Yesterday's sell-off was driven by today's Georgia runoff elections, which will ascertain whether or not the Republican Party can hold on to control in the US Senate, with fears that increased tax rates and more progressive policies could weigh on markets if Democrats gain control of the Senate weighing on sentiment.

England's move to impose a third Covid-19 lockdown amid worries of a more transmissible variant of the coronavirus has also rattled markets, with New York state confirming its first case of the new strain on Monday.