Morrisons first quarter sales rise, Capita appoints Weller as new CFO

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 81 points lower on Tuesday, having closed down 0.09% on Monday at 7,123.68.

Stocks to watch

UK supermarket Morrisons reported a rise in first quarter sales and reiterated guidance for higher full-year profits and reduced debt as the economy rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic. The company on Tuesday said total sales for the 14 weeks to May 9 were up 5.3% including fuel sales. Group LFL sales excluding-fuel was up 2.7%, and up 4.7% including-fuel.

Outsourcer Capita has appointed Tim Weller as its new chief financial officer with effect from Wednesday. Weller joins from security services firm G4S, where he has been CFO since 2016 and on the board since 2013. He has 19 years of experience as a CFO with G4S, Innogy, RWE Thames Water, United Utilities, Cable & Wireless Worldwide and Petrofac.

Newspaper round-up

Many workers employed across the £37bn NHS test-and-trace service are being paid through networks of opaque small companies that experts fear could be defrauding the Treasury via a notorious tax scheme. The Guardian investigated after sources working at Covid-19 call centres, testing sites, mobile testing units and laboratories raised concerns about their payslips and employment terms. - Guardian

The millionaire CEOs of some of the American companies with the lowest-paid workers saw an average pay raise of 29% in 2020 while their workers saw a 2% decrease, according to a report released Tuesday. The Institute for Policy Studies calculated that the average CEO compensation in 2020 was $15.3m when looking at the 100 companies with the lowest median wage for workers in the S&P 500 index. - Guardian

The Japanese technology powerhouse Softbank has become a major shareholder in The Hut Group (THG), in a deal that catapults the Manchester make-up and protein shakes retailer onto the global stage. After the stock market closed on Monday, Softbank was unveiled as the cornerstone backer of a $1bn (£710m) fundraising intended to fuel THG’s growth. - Telegraph

Ministers are demanding that Hitachi picks up the multi million-pound bill for passenger compensation after some of Britain’s busiest rail lines were hit by mass cancellations due to faulty trains. Passengers endured a third day of significant disruption on intercity services to the north and west as investigators continued their probe into the threat of faults on Hitachi trains. Two InterCity 225 trains built in the early 1990s will be brought back into service later this week by LNER, the state-owned east coast main line, in response to the problems. - Telegraph

Landlords have lost a legal action to challenge the use of an insolvency procedure by New Look, the high street retailer. Land Securities and British Land were among landlords who opposed the use of a company voluntary arrangement, or CVA, by New Look as the fashion chain dropped rent arrears and created a new basis for its rent. Last September, New Look said that a CVA was an “absolute necessity” to safeguard 11,200 jobs, after the pandemic forced the closure of its stores. It was its second use of a CVA in only three years. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed lower on Monday, with last week's ransomware attack on a major US fuel pipeline and a rotation out of growth stocks both dominating the session.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.10% at 34,742.82, while the S&P 500 was 1.04% weaker at 4,188.43 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 2.55% softer at 13,401.86.

The Dow closed 34.94 points lower on Monday, taking a bite out of gains recorded on Friday when the blue-chip index registered yet another fresh record high.

Energy stocks were in focus on Monday after a ransomware attack led to the closure of the Colonial Pipeline, a 5,500-mile system between the Gulf Coast and the New York metropolitan area and transports 45% of the East Coast's fuel supply, on Friday in order to "contain the threat". Colonial said on Sunday that several of its smaller lateral lines were once again online but stated that its main lines were still offline.

Cybersecurity stocks were also in focus as a result of the news, with shares in FireEye trading higher, while Fortinet and CrowdStrike moved lower throughout the session.