Computacenter lifts full-year guidance, Mediclinic revenue rises

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 11 points lower on Friday, having closed down 0.37% on Thursday at 6,715.42.

Stocks to watch

Computacenter on Friday lifted full-year profits guidance after trading continued strongly until the end of the year. In a trading statement, the company said it now expected adjusted profit before tax for the 12 months to December 31 would be more than £195m.

Mediclinic International's third-quarter revenue rose 2.5% as the private healthcare group experienced unusually high inpatient levels in southern Africa and the Middle East. Revenue rose 3.5% at Mediclinic Southern Africa and 8% at Mediclinic Middle East as income at the Swiss Hirslanden business fell 1.5%. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell 8%.

GlaxoSmithKline, along with its partners Pfizer and Shionogi, said on Friday that its specialist HIV company ViiV Healthcare has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for ‘Cabenuva’. The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant described Cabenuva as the “first and only complete long-acting regimen” for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults.

Newspaper round-up

Next has pulled out of the race to acquire Topshop, the jewel in the crown of Sir Philip Green’s collapsed fashion empire Arcadia, after rival bidders trumped its offer. Arcadia, which employed 13,000 people across 500 outlets when it fell into administration last year, is being broken up. Interested parties had been asked to submit bids for the whole company or individual brands at the start of this week. - Guardian

Britain’s largest cinema chain is facing a shareholder backlash over a scheme that could result in senior bosses being allocated up to £208m in share awards while thousands of staff remain on furlough as all 127 of its UK sites remain closed. Cineworld’s shareholders are due to vote on a new pay policy and long-term incentive plan (LTIP) at a special meeting next week. The shareholder advisory groups Glass Lewis and ISS have recommended that investors vote against the plans. - Guardian

Nearly 6,000 licensed venues disappeared from high streets and city centres last year, almost triple the number in 2019, as the pandemic wreaked havoc on the hospitality sector. Government restrictions introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus combined with a slump in consumer confidence contributed to a net decline of 5,975 sites during 2020, according to the latest Market Recovery Monitor from consultancies CGA and AlixPartners. - Telegraph

Shops will start to run out stock within weeks if chaos at the borders does not ease, according to supply chain experts. Six out of 10 supply chain managers said they are running into problems with new customs controls and Covid-19 checks that are delaying goods coming into the UK from Europe, research by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) found. Delays ran for several days in about a third of cases. - Telegraph

The state body that runs premium bonds and other savings products has apologised to customers for its poor service after admitting that it took an average of 20 minutes simply to answer the phone in the autumn. National Savings & Investments accepted that it had been wrongfooted by the sheer volume of savings flooding into it over the summer and then wrongfooted a second time by the wave flooding out again in the autumn after it announced cuts in interest rates and prize money. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed in a mixed state on Thursday, after major indices hit fresh record highs in the previous session on Inauguration Day.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.04% at 31,176.01, while the S&P 500 eked out gains of 0.03% to 3,853.07, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.55% firmer at 13,530.92.

The Dow closed 12.37 points lower on Thursday, having recorded gains in the previous session as market participants focussed on Joe Biden's inauguration in Washington DC and a flurry of executive orders signed by the new President.

Almost immediately after taking the oath of office, Biden released details of his Covid-19 plan, detailing ten executive orders that would increase testing, speed up the rate of vaccinations, provide further funding to local officials and utilise the Defense Production Act to manufacture additional supplies, including masks.

With total confirmed coronavirus cases in the US exceeding 25.0m, claiming the lives of more than 416,160 Americans in the process, investors will now be keen to see if Biden can push his proposed $1.9trn Covid-19 relief bill through Congress.