PageGroup Q3 profit rises, Barratt sees FY results in line

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was called to open six points lower at 6,879.

Stocks to watch

UK house builder Barratt said it expected annual results to be in line with expectations, but warned that private reservations had slipped as customers reacted to rising interest rates and reduced mortgage availability.

“The outlook for the year is less certain with the availability and pricing of mortgages critical to the long-term health of the UK housing market,” Barratt said on Wednesday. Adjusted full-year pre-tax profits are expected to come in at £972.5m.

Recruiter PageGroup posted a jump in third-quarter profit and said it expects full-year operating profit to be in line with company-compiled consensus of £204m.

Gross profit rose 14% from the third quarter a year earlier to £270.5m. The group hailed a good broad-based performance across the majority of its geographies, disciplines and brands, with record performances in nine countries despite the typically slower summer months.

Newspaper round-up

UK regulators are struggling to cope with the post-Brexit trading environment because of “poor preparation and planning”, a House of Commons committee investigation has found. Almost two years after the UK quit the EU, there are still shortages of vets, toxicologists, lawyers and economists to deal with the UK’s new status as a “third country”, found the public accounts committee report, Regulating After EU Exit. – Guardian

The publisher of the Financial Times has revealed a slowdown in subscriber growth despite returning to profit. The Financial Times Limited, its UK business, reported a profit after tax of £11.6m for 2021, having fallen to a £34.5m loss the previous year. – Telegraph

Pension chiefs have warned the Bank of England it risks creating further market chaos by ending its bond-buying support later this week after officials were forced into another intervention. The industry urged Governor Andrew Bailey to extend the Bank’s bond purchases to at least the Chancellor’s Hallowe’en fiscal statement amid growing fears of more market chaos when the support wraps up on Friday. – Telegraph

Investors withdrew £11.25 billion from UK-domiciled open-ended investment funds and exchange-traded funds, the largest sum in more than a decade, according to the financial research firm Morningstar. Markets worldwide have seen a big sell-off since the start of the year as the war in Ukraine, rising interest rates, inflation and threats of recession rattle investors. An open-ended fund is a mutual investment fund that can issue and redeem shares at any time. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks put on a mixed showing on Tuesday as market participants continued to brace for the rapidly approaching Q3 earnings season.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.12% at 29,239.19, while the S&P 500 was 0.65% weaker at 3,588.84 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.10% softer at 10,426.19.