Intertek on track for solid annual growth, United Utilities first half profits rise

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open six point higher on Wednesday, having closed up 0.15% at 7,266.69 on Tuesday.

Stocks to watch

Intertek said it was on track for solid annual growth as the product testing company reported revenue up 6.7% in the most recent four-month period. Excluding currency movements, revenue rose to £961.5m from £941m in the four months to the end of October, helped by acquisitions. Including currency swings revenue rose 2.2% and like-for-like revenue was up 0.5%. At constant currency, like-for-like revenue rose 5%.

United Utilities reported a 4% increase in first-half profit as water consumption increased along with economic activity. Underlying operating profit rose to £332.8m in the six months to the end of September from £318.5m a year earlier as revenue increased 4% to £932.3m. The interim dividend rose to 14.50p from 14.41p. The water company said it expected annual revenue to be about 2% higher than the previous year with capital spending between £625m and £675m. Underlying operating and finance costs will increase.

Chemicals company Johnson Matthey on Wednesday said it had sold its advanced glass technologies business to Fenzi Holdings for £178m as it reported a half-year loss and announced a £200m share buyback. The company, which last week issued a profits warning and said it was exiting its battery business, swung to a pre-tax loss of £9m compared with a profit of £26m a year ago. Underlying operating profit more than doubled to £293m on higher precious metals prices and strong demand.

Newspaper round-up

The insurer LV= will be taken over by a company based offshore in Jersey if members agree to a deal orchestrated by US private equity firm Bain Capital that would see it lose its historic mutual status. Bain has established a Jersey-based company called BCC Blake Bidco Ltd to carry out the takeover, according to correspondence between an independent expert and Gareth Thomas, a Labour MP and shadow minister of international trade. - Guardian

French fishers are set to take action within days, including blocking road and sea freight bound for the UK through Calais and other Channel ports, as a months-long dispute over licences to operate in British waters intensifies. French media reported on Tuesday that with talks between the two governments and the European Commission over post-Brexit fishing rights seemingly deadlocked, angry fishers in northern France would decide on Thursday what steps to take. - Guardian

Companies are ordering food from special city centre kitchens in a bid to attract workers back to the office without having to run canteens. Catering giant Compass has set up 12 remote kitchens in the UK and Ireland, mostly in London and Dublin, to cook meals and deliver them to its corporate clients. It is a similar format to so-called "dark kitchens" used by some restaurants to sell food via apps such as Deliveroo, except in this case the food needs to be pre-ordered in bulk. - Telegraph

Google and Facebook must not be regulated "only by outrage", the chief executive of Ofcom has said, in comments that will be received as a retort to criticisms from the former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre. Dame Melanie Dawes said the "time has come for strong, external oversight" of web search and social media as she underscored her commitment to tackling harmful online content, days after Mr Dacre questioned if she had the "wherewithal" to do the job. - Telegraph

Only four months ago, the government regarded Bulb as such a totem of British enterprise that it granted the energy supplier a prime ministerial visit. “I’m here at a wonderful company called Bulb in their Bishopsgate headquarters,” Boris Johnson said as he met apprentices in a glowing Downing Street video. Now the jobs of those apprentices and 1,000 other Bulb staff are at risk after the supplier said on Monday that it had failed to secure the investment it needed to survive and was entering the government-backed special administration regime. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks put on a mixed performance on Tuesday as rising international Covid-19 cases remained in focus ahead of the Thanksgiving break.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.55% at 35,813.80, while the S&P 500 was 0.17% stronger at 4,690.70 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.50% softer at 15,775.14.

The Dow closed 194.55 points higher on Tuesday, building on modest gains recorded in the previous session as market participants monitored rising Covid-19 cases across Europe and rising bond yields fuelled a tech sell-off.

Trading was somewhat slow on Tuesday given the Thanksgiving holiday-shortened week. However, traders still digested a number of earnings reports and the odd data point.

On the macro front, a flash reading of IHS Markit's November manufacturing PMI revealed that business activity growth slowed down a touch in November but still increased month-on-month, coming in bang on estimates at 59.1, up from 58.4 a month ago, as labour and raw material shortages weighed on production.