CRH lifts dividend, AstraZeneca reports positive Wilson disease results

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 29 points lower on Thursday, having closed up 0.34% at 7,150.12 on Wednesday.

Stocks to watch

Building materials supplier CRH lifted its dividend as interim core earnings rose by a quarter and the company said it expected second half profits to be ahead of a record prior year. Earnings for the six months to June 30 came in at $2bn, up 25% on a better-than-expected 15% increase in sales to $14bn. The dividend rose 4.5% to 23 cents a share.

AstraZeneca said on Thursday that positive high-level results from the ‘FoCus’ phase 3 trial in Wilson disease showed ‘ALXN1840’ met its primary endpoint, with a statistically significant improvement in daily mean copper mobilisation from tissues, demonstrating superiority compared with standard-of-care treatments.At the same time, the FTSE 100 drugmaker said ‘Forxiga’, or dapagliflozin, a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor, has been approved in Japan for the treatment of chronic kidney disease in adults with and without type-2 diabetes.

Newspaper round-up

The incoming 31-year-old boss of Sports Direct owner Frasers Group could be handed shares worth more than £100m if he more than doubles its share price. The company, which also owns the House of Fraser department stores and the designer fashion chain Flannels, revealed the bumper potential payout on Wednesday night, weeks after it announced that Michael Murray would be taking over from his future father-in-law, Mike Ashley, next spring. - Guardian

British car factories produced the fewest cars for any July since 1956 as they struggled with worker absences and the global shortage of computer chips. UK carmakers made 53,400 vehicles in July, a 37.6% drop when compared with the same month in 2020, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the industry’s lobby group. - Guardian

Lord Grimstone, the investment minister, has dismissed mounting warnings of disruption to supply chains and shortages as “short-term perturbations” that businesses are capable of “self-correcting”. Supermarket and hospitality chiefs lined up to demand immigration controls be eased to allow more foreign HGV drivers into the UK, but the City grandee insisted the economy remained on track. - Telegraph

The British division of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange is “not capable of being effectively supervised”, according to the Financial Conduct Authority. In a damning report, the watchdog revealed its frustration in trying to engage with Binance Markets, which it cracked down on in June amid concerns about the company’s anti-money laundering standards. At the time, the FCA also forced it to issue a warning to consumers that it was not allowed to carry out regulated activities in the UK. - The Times

Europe’s biggest activist investor has piled further pressure on Aviva by lifting its stake in the insurance group above 5 per cent to leave it with a shareholding worth more than £820 million. The move hands Cevian Capital significantly more influence at the FTSE 100 constituent by giving the Anglo-Swedish investor the right to call shareholder meetings and to have its resolutions considered at the insurer’s annual meetings. - The Times

US close

Wall Street closed slightly higher across the board on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq adding to their record highs from the previous session as investors looked to the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole summit.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.11% at 35,405.50, as the S&P 500 added 0.22% to 4,496.19 and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 0.15% at 15,041.86.

The Dow Jones closed 39.24 points higher on Wednesday, extending the modest gains recorded in the previous session that came as the FDA's full approval of Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine gave sentiment a boost.

Trading was somewhat muted on Wednesday, with market participants continuing to hold out for the beginning of tomorrow's likely market moving symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Investors were taking a wait-and-see approach to whether or not central bankers would outline their plans for tapering monetary stimulus after already having started talks as to how to pull back on its $120bn a month bond-buying program by the end of 2021.