Wood Group profits rise, PureTech in 'strong' position

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 12 points higher on Tuesday, having closed up 0.3% at 7,109.02 on Monday.

Stocks to watch

Wood Group reported a rise in interim profit as trading momentum improved in the second half and its order book grew. Operating profit for the six months to June 30 rose to £68.2m from £65.6m a year earlier. On a pre-tax basis, profits soared to £18.4m from £0.9m although revenue fell 22.9% to $3.2bn. The dividend was withheld. “Trading momentum and good growth in our order book, which is up 18% year-to-date, underpin our confidence in delivering a stronger second half which will reflect a return to growth compared to both H1 2021 and H2 2020, and further growth in our full year adjusted EBITDA margin," the company said on Tuesday.

PureTech reported a "strong" capital base and cash runway expected into the first quarter of 2025 in its half-year update on Tuesday, with cash and cash equivalents of $409.7m, and consolidated cash and cash equivalents of $439.8mat period end. It reported continued advancement of its wholly-owned programs, with two phase 2 and four phase 1 clinical trials underway.

Newspaper round-up

The pharmacy chain Boots will become the latest large retailer to make its products available through Deliveroo, as the takeaway delivery company aims to expand beyond restaurant orders. Stores in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Nottingham will be among the 14 initially available in the trial as part of a pilot scheme launching on Tuesday. - Guardian

Faster trains and extra seats that had been promised for the London-Edinburgh East Coast line in a flagship £1.2bn upgrade will be delayed for at least a year. About 40 more train services and 20,000 extra seats a day were due to be added next May after the biggest engineering programme on the existing railway, which has closed King’s Cross and parts of the mainline at weekends over the last few years. - Guardian

The Chinese taxi-hailing app Didi has suspended plans to launch in Britain and continental Europe amid concerns about how it handles sensitive passenger data, The Telegraph can reveal. Didi had secured licences to operate in several British cities as part of a push to challenge Uber, but is now understood to have pulled the plans for at least 12 months. - Telegraph

Businesses selling goods that require product safety marks have another 12 months before UK standards will apply, the government has announced. It said the move to delay the requirement to display the new UKCA kitemark until January 1, 2023, would give companies affected by the pandemic in England, Wales and Scotland more time to get their products assessed. - The Times

Universal Music Group has announced an exclusive deal with Aerosmith to house the band’s entire recorded catalogue, as the world’s largest music label prepares to go public next month. Vivendi, the French media group which owns Universal, is preparing to spin it off onto the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange by September 27. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Monday as market participants await the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole symposium later in the week.

At the close, the Dow Jones futures Industrial Average was up 0.61% at 35,335.71, while the S&P 500 was 0.85% firmer at 4,479.53 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.55% stronger at 14,942.65.

The Dow Jones closed 215.63 points higher on Monday, extending gains recorded in the final session of what was an otherwise losing week for major averages.

The week's primary focus will be the Fed's Jackson Hole symposium, with investors likely to scrutinise it for any hints on the central bank's timeline for scaling back its $120.0bn a month bond-buying program. The event will take place virtually on Thursday and Friday, with Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell set to deliver a speech titled "The Economic Outlook".

As far as Monday data was concerned, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago revealed that its national activity index had improved to 0.53 in July from a revised -0.01 print a month earlier.