Frasers Group warns of non-cash impairments, trading improving at PageGroup

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 18 points higher on Friday, having closed up 0.83% on Thursday at 6,942.22.

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Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group said it could face extra non-cash impairments of at least £200m due to “almost certain” further Covid-19 restrictions. The company, which includes the Sports Direct and Frasers retail brands, said it had based the decision on government statements on Britain’s path out of lockdown restrictions. “In our ongoing assessment we note the continuing government and government advisor pronouncements regarding ‘third waves’ and normality being ‘some way off’, meaning further restrictions are in our view almost certain,” Frasers said in a statement on Friday.

PageGroup said improving trading made it more confident about the outlook as it reported a 2% increase in first-quarter profit. Gross profit for the three months to the end of March rose to £184.2m from £182.3m a year earlier and performance improved throughout the period, the recruitment group said. The group predicted annual operating profit between £90m and £100m.

Rio Tinto said it has signed binding heads of agreement with Turquoise Hill Resources on an updated funding plan of around $2.3bn to finish the Oyu Tolgoi copper project in Mongolia. The plan builds on and replaces an arrangement signed last September, the two companies said on Friday. Rio and Turquoise Hill Resources will re-profile principal debt repayments up to $1.4bn with lenders under the existing project finance arrangements to better align with the revised mine plan, project timing and cash flows.

Newspaper round-up

Rishi Sunak has been accused of trying to smooth the way for Greensill Capital to gain special access to emergency Covid loans after the release of text messages showing the chancellor told David Cameron he had “pushed the team” to see if it could happen. The Treasury also revealed that the former prime minister “informally” phoned two other ministers from the department, and sources said he sent “multiple” texts to Sunak’s personal phone. The Treasury refused to release those texts, saying they were sent “with an expectation of confidence”. - Guardian

Facebook has not notified the more-than 530m users whose details were exposed on a hacker forum in 2019 and has no plans to do so, according to company representatives. Business Insider reported last week that phone numbers and other details from Facebook user profiles were available in a public database. The social media company acknowledged in a blogpost on Tuesday that “malicious actors” had obtained the data prior to September 2019 by “scraping” profiles using a vulnerability in the platform’s tool for syncing contacts. Facebook has said it plugged the hole after identifying the problem at the time. - Guardian

AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot has come under fire from investors for failing to defend its coronavirus vaccine amid questions about its safety. Investors said that the Frenchman, who has been in Australia visiting his wife and children since Christmas, had not adequately communicated the benefits of AstraZeneca’s vaccine following fears it could be linked to rare brain clots. - Telegraph

Governments across the world would raise an extra $300 billion in revenue every year if US plans for a global minimum corporate tax rate of 21 per cent are adopted, experts have calculated. President Biden lifted hopes of a breakthrough in talks to end multinational tax avoidance this week by proposing to make US tech giants pay more tax in host countries in return for an agreement on a minimum global corporation tax rate. - The Times

Revolut has told its employees that they can spend up to two months a year working from abroad. The fast-growing British banking app, which has more than 2,000 staff, said the policy would allow its international workforce to spend more time with their families. - The Times

US close

Wall Street trading finished on a positive note on Thursday, as a sharper-than-expected increase in weekly jobless claims had little impact on major indices.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.17% at 33,503.57, while the S&P 500 added 0.42% to 4,097.17 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.03% to 13,829.31.

The Dow Jones closed 57.31 points higher on Thursday, adding to the gains recorded on Wednesday, as investors digested minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's latest meeting.

The FOMC meeting minutes, which outlined plans to maintain the pace of asset purchases for some time as the central bank helps to support stable prices and maximum employment, remained in focus on Thursday, as did President Joe Biden's $2.0trn infrastructure plan that includes a corporate tax rate hike to 28%.

Biden, who indicated on Wednesday that he was willing to negotiate on the proposed increase, views the hike as a key source of revenue for the White House's infrastructure plan.