LSE Group profits more than double, Hikma upgrades full-year guidance

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open seven points higher on Friday, having closed down 0.05% at 7,120.43 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

London Stock Exchange Group more than doubled profits in the first half the year as total income grew 4.6%. The company said adjusted pre-tax profits came in at £1.03bn from £435m a year ago. Adjusted operating expenses grew 1.1% and £77m in synergies had been achieved from the acquisition of Refinitiv.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals upgraded full-year guidance for its generics arm and reported a rise in first-half profit and revenue as it hailed a strong performance in both the generics and branded segments, and resilience in the injectables business. Reported pre-tax profit rose to $319m from $274m in the first half of 2020, with revenue up 7% at $1.2bn. Operating profit was 10% higher at $326m. The company declared an interim dividend of 18 cents, up from 16 cents the year before.

Newspaper round-up

The battered live events sector, from summer music festivals to business conferences and boat shows, has finally been promised a Covid cancellation insurance scheme. Campaigners have long been pleading for insurance support to help the sector get back on its feet, because commercial insurers have not provided cover for Covid-related cancellations. While welcomed, the announcement comes far too late for a string of festivals and events that have already been abandoned. - Guardian

Virgin Galactic has said it will open ticket sales on Thursday for space flights starting at $450,000 a seat, weeks after the company’s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, took a high profile flight to the edge of space. The space-tourism company said Thursday it is making progress toward beginning revenue flights next year. It will sell single seats, package deals and entire flights. - Guardian

Qatar Airways has grounded Airbus aircraft after discovering fuselages were “degrading at an accelerated rate”. Some 13 Airbus A350s, which have a carbon composite body that makes them lighter and more fuel-efficient, have been taken out of the service, the state-owned airline said. - Telegraph

Crispin Odey, the hedge fund manager, has taken on “meme stock” traders by betting against the fortunes of AMC Entertainment, the US cinema group that also owns the Odeon chain. Mr Odey, 62, said that investors using trading apps such as Robinhood to back AMC had left the US company “way overvalued on any grounds”. - Telegraph

Cairn Energy is moving closer to receiving $1.7billion in compensation as part of a long-running tax dispute with the Indian government. Delhi is planning to settle lengthy tax disputes by introducing proposals for an amendment to its tax law. The move sent Cairn’s shares up by more than a quarter yesterday. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Thursday as traders thumbed over this week's jobless claims report from the Labor Department.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.78% at 35,064.25, while the S&P 500 was down 0.60% at 4,429.10 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.78% firmer at 14,895.12.

The Dow closed 271.48 points higher on Thursday, cutting into losses recorded in the previous session.

Thursday's main focus was an update on the current US employment picture, with the Department of Labor's latest weekly initial jobless claims report showing first-time jobless claims in the US were little changed during the week ended 31 July.

In seasonally adjusted terms the number of initial unemployment claims fell by 14,000 to reach 385,000 last week. Economists had been anticipating a print of 384,000. However, secondary claims shrank by 366,000 to reach 2.93m and the four-week moving average of initial claims drifted lower to 394,000.