Cineworld confirms reopening plans, Jlen acquires digestion plant

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 50 points lower on Tuesday, having closed up 0.26% on Monday at 6,726.10.

Stocks to watch

Cineworld Group on Tuesday said its US Regal theatres chain will reopen from Covid lockdown in April for the first time in six months, with a UK restart slated for May as it announced a screening deal with Warner Bros The phased reopening would start with a limited number of cinemas opening for screenings of ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ on April 2 before a wider rollout, with ‘Mortal Kombat’ on April 16. "We have long-awaited this moment when we can welcome audiences back to our Regal theatres and restore our essential role within the communities we serve," said chief executive Mooky Greidinger.

Building materials business CRH said Jim Mintern will assume the role of finance director on June 1 after the retirement of Senan Murphy, the company said on Tuesday. Mintern joined CRH in Ireland as finance director for Roadstone in 2002 and since then has held several senior positions across the group, including country manager for Ireland and managing director of each of the Western and Eastern regions of its Europe Materials business.

Environmental infrastructure investor Jlen announced the acquisition of a 100% equity stake in Rainworth Energy (REL) for £5.8m on Tuesday. The FTSE 250 company said REL holds the rights and operational assets that make up the 2.5MW Rainworth anaerobic digestion plant in Nottinghamshire. It said the plant had been operational since 2016, and supplied both heat and power to Center Parcs' Sherwood Forest resort.

Newspaper round-up

Small local grocery stores and online retailers are likely to benefit from permanent changes in shopping habits after a year of Covid-19 restrictions, according to a report one year on from the first lockdown. More than nine in 10 of people who have shopped locally say they will continue to do so, a survey by Barclaycard found. Nearly two-thirds of consumers in the UK have chosen to buy closer to home in the past year, leading to a 63% rise in spending at specialist food and drink stores such as butchers, bakeries and greengrocers last month, the debit and credit card operator said. - Guardian

David Cameron has drawn criticism from former ministers but escaped official scrutiny by MPs after the Tory-dominated Treasury select committee declined to launch an inquiry into his efforts to lobby government officials on behalf of Greensill Capital. Parliamentarians have expressed concern over allegations that the former prime minister contacted the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, on his private phone in hopes of securing special access to hundreds of thousands of pounds of emergency Covid loans for the firm, which collapsed this month. - Guardian

BBC boss Tim Davie is pressing ministers for a £150m borrowing boost to help it compete with the financial firepower of Netflix. The broadcaster wants the debt limit enforced on its commercial arm BBC Studios to be increased from £350m to £500m so it can take on the deep-pocketed streaming giants. - Telegraph

Fraud and defaults in the taxpayer-backed bounce back loan scheme may be much lower than expected, according to an analysis of the programme. Equifax, the credit ratings agency, said that levels of application fraud in the scheme appear to be at a fraction of the scale feared by officials, while the financial position of borrowers suggests losses could be more modest than the up to £26 billion predicted by the National Audit Office. - The Times

Wework remains deep in the red after the pandemic crippled its business and drove down demand for commercial office space. The property company has told prospective investors that it lost $3.2 billion last year, according to the Financial Times, as it seeks to raise funds and go public. These losses fell from $3.5 billion the previous year, however, after it drastically cut spending. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Monday after the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slipped from its recent 14-month high, with technology stocks leading gainers.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.32% at 32,731.20, while the S&P 500 was 0.70% firmer at 3,940.59 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.23% stronger at 13,375.54.

The Dow closed 103.23 points higher on Monday, cutting into losses recorded on Friday when all three major indices ended the week in the red.

In focus on Monday, the 10-year Treasury yield fell about three basis points to 1.69%, while off its recent highs, the still-elevated yield continued to pressure tech and growth stocks that had previously helped Wall Street bounce back from its Covid-19-induced sell-off early in 2020.

Optimism around vaccine rollouts across the US was also on investors' minds, with the rate at which Americans were getting inoculated continuing to climb in recent weeks. However, news that several states had actually seen an increase in new Covid-19 cases did put a slight dampener on sentiment.