Phoenix sells Ark Life Assurance unit, Howden trades strongly in first half

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open three points lower on Tuesday, having closed up 0.05% at 7,125.42 on Monday.

Stocks to watch

Phoenix Group on Tuesday said it had sold its Ark Life Assurance unit to Irish Life Group for €230m (£197m). “This transaction simplifies our European operations and accelerates the cash release from this business. The group expects to redeploy the capital into higher return growth opportunities to drive incremental future cash generation,” the company said in a statement.

Howden Joinery said trading was strong in the first half and ahead of its expectations with revenue ahead of the same period in 2020 and 2019. Group revenue was almost £785m in the six months to the end of June compared with £465m a year earlier and £653m two years earlier. UK depot revenue was about £764m - up 19.8% from 2019 and 15.3% on a same-depot basis. Howden said this pattern had continued and it was cautiously optimistic about the outlook. The FTSE 250 group said it expected annual pretax profit of about £300m - up from £185.3m in 2020 and £260.7m in 2019.

Newspaper round-up

Almost 400,000 UK households could be pushed into fuel poverty this winter as energy bills climb by almost 10% as a result of rising gas market prices. At least 3 million homes in the UK are already thought to be unable to afford their energy bills, and the number in fuel poverty could grow by 392,000 within the coming months. - Guardian

The Unite union has lodged an official competition complaint against Amazon, alleging the online retailer profited from pandemic-related “price gouging” on products such as hand sanitiser and face masks. In a 41-page letter, seen by the Guardian, lawyers for Unite accuse Amazon of “exploitative abuse of its dominance” and call on the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to launch an investigation. - Guardian

Apple has made a record £720m payment from its UK operations to its Irish holding company and inched up its UK tax payments amid an international shake-up of tax rules. The iPhone maker paid dividends worth just over £600m for its three UK-headquartered businesses in the year to September 2020 and paid a further £120m in December, according to its accounts. - Telegraph

Leading American multinationals plan to increase their investment in Britain over the coming years despite concern over the fallout from leaving the European Union. A survey of large US companies already employing about 275,000 staff in the UK found a clear majority were confident in the country as a place to do business. Several dozen firms signalled they intend to at least modestly boost their expenditure over the next two to three years. - The Times

Most firms still do not have a full understanding of how freeports will operate and be governed, a survey suggests (Louisa Clarence-Smith writes). A report which includes responses from the British Ports Association, Brittany Ferries and Lloyds Bank found that 64 percent of about 500 businesses questioned were unclear about how the eight freeports in England announced by Rishi Sunak in March would work. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Monday, extending gains seen in the previous session to push major indices to fresh record highs.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.36% at 34,996.18, while the S&P 500 was 0.35% firmer at 4,384.63 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.21% stronger at 14,733.24.

The Dow closed 126.02 points higher on Monday, with reopening plays Carnival Corp and General Electric in the red, while big tech stocks like Tesla, Nvidia and Facebook closed in the green.

Virgin Galactic was down around 17% after founder Richard Branson made history by making his way into space aboard the company's VSS Unity spacecraft, while Walt Disney stock gained after Black Widow brought in $80.0m at the US domestic box office at its debut, the most of any Covid-19 era film.

Investors also had an eye locked on the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, currently sitting at around 1.36%.