Yahoo Finance FTSE 100 Live: London blue-chips higher, new Treasury Secretary, British Land results
The FTSE 100 is trading higher today, after a sharp fall of almost 100 points to finish last week.
British Land and BAE Systems are among the companies with updates or reporting financial results.
FTSE 100 Live Monday
British Land posts higher profit
Phoenix shares lead FTSE 100
Tullow Oil in debt refinancing
US shares lower - market snapshot
15:17 , Daniel O'Boyle
US shares are lower today, amid continued concerns about the medium-term interest rate outlook.
The S&P 500 is down 0.4% to 4,398.01, while the Dow Jones is down 30 points to 34,252.74. The Nasdaq is down 0.6% to 13,716.26.
Boeing is among the top risers, continuing the bounce in global aviation shares, while Bath & Body Works is among the big fallers.
Laura Trott becomes Treasury Secretary
14:58 , Daniel O'Boyle
Former pensions minister Laura Trott has been named Treasury Secretary, the second most senior position in the treasury after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Her appointment, in a reshuffle kicked off by the sacking of Suella Braverman, comes a little over a week before Hunt's Autumn Statement.
See all the latest cabinet updates in the our reshuffle live blog
Day of reckoning looms in Downing Street for Sunak's inflation target
14:28 , Daniel O'Boyle
Inflation, jobs and wages numbers will move back to the centre of attention across the City this week, and Downing Street could find out it has met its pledge to halve inflation with room to spare.
The Consumer Price Index for October is due on Wednesday morning. It is expected to come in at 4.8%, down from 6.7% for the previous month, and within Rishi Sunak’s 5% target.
The prime minister made the pledge shortly after taking up residence in Number 10 in late October last year. The Bank of England was already running its long period of interest rate hikes to get the double-digit CPI readings toward its own target of 2%.
Nearly 60% of Brits fear their jobs are replaceable by AI
13:55 , Daniel O'Boyle
Most Brits are worried their jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence, a new survey has revealed.
A survey of 1,000 UK adults for “mentoring platform” PushFar found that 58.4% of Brits worry that AI will make their jobs “more easily replaceable”.
Women are more concerned than men about being replaced by robots, by 14.4 percentage points.
Breaking results down by age group, those aged between 25 and 34 feared the rise of robots the most, with almost three quarters of respondents saying AI would make them more replaceable. That compared to only around a third of those aged over 55 believing AI would make them more replaceable.
Lunchtime market snapshot
12:29 , Daniel O'Boyle
The FTSE 100 continues its rebound from Friday's 100-point drop, with Rishi Sunak's cabinet reshuffle having little impact on the markets.
Shop workers suffering daily abuse and fear for safety, retail charity warns
12:20 , Daniel O'Boyle
Shop workers are experiencing hundreds of incidents of abuse every day, new research has shown, as staff at chains including Tesco, H&M and John Lewis have spoken out.
Two in five workers are shouted at, spat on, threatened with violence or hit every week, according to the Retail Trust’s survey of more than 1,600 staff from 200 companies.
The charity, which runs a wellbeing helpline and offers counselling for retail workers, said it wants all incidents to be reported and is calling on customers to better respect Britain’s staff ahead of the busy Christmas period.
Dried-up deals market leaves Takeover Panel with its first deficit in years
12:00 , Daniel O'Boyle
The body which regulates company acquisitions in the UK has recorded its first financial deficit in several years after a large decline in the number of deals being sealed.
The Takeover Panel, which is funded by a levy on deals, said it had a deficit of £3.8 million after interest and tax during the last financial year. It was down from a surplus of £1.7 million a year earlier.
The body said that in the second part of the year – the six months to March – there was a “significant decline” in the flow of deals in the UK.
Accenture takes stake in Vodafone shared services
11:01 , Daniel O'Boyle
Consulting giant Accenture today took €150 million stake in Vodafone’s shared services arm, as the telecoms firm prepares thousands of job cuts in the division.
Vodafone said it would take advantage of Accenture’s “world class technology” and “deep AI expertise” to make the Vodafone Intelligent Solutions business, which includes IT, HR and business-to-business sales, more efficient.
It also cited the Irish-American firm’s “capabilities to continuously create new skilling and career paths for its people”, after Vodafone revealed in May it would cut 11,000 jobs over the next three years. The shared services arm is set to bear the brunt of those cuts.
CEO Margherita Della Valle said: “Today's announcement is a significant development for Vodafone as we change and simplify the way we work.”
Vodafone shares rose by 1.1p, or 1.5%, to 77.5p.
Phoenix leads FTSE 100, easyJet shares 2% higher
10:27 , Graeme Evans
The FTSE 100 index today put back some of Friday’s 1.2% decline by adding 51.19 points to 7411.74, with retirement and savings business Phoenix Group the best performer.
Its jump of 7% or 34.4p to 498.6p follows the completion of a funds merger bringing together legacy Phoenix Life and Standard Life customers into a single legal entity.
Phoenix said this meant a one-off upgrade to its 2023 cash generation target from about £1.35 billion to £1.8 billion and to a total of £4.5 billion across the three years to 2025.
The revision led City analysts to speculate over how Phoenix might deploy the surplus cash, with a share buyback one potential option.
Other blue-chip risers included Rolls-Royce following a gain of 6.2p to 238.2p, but there was no recovery for drinks giant Diageo after Friday’s Latin America profit warning.
The Guinness and Smirnoff firm fell another 6.25p to 2843.7p as Deutsche Bank analysts reiterated a “sell” rating alongside a lower price target of 2550p.
The FTSE 250 index edged up 26.58 points to 17,879.67, aided by gains of more than 2% for airline stocks Wizz Air and easyJet.
City Comment: Lucky Rishi Sunak looks set to ‘deliver’ on inflation pledge
10:04 , Daniel O'Boyle
Fair play to Rishi Sunak, a man who seems not overly blessed with good luck. Or with a talent pool of self-effacing, steady-as-she goes lieutenants on whom he can rely to at least stick to a script in the name of imparting confidence.
Which is why some of us were inclined to smirk when he pledged to halve inflation to just over 5% by the end of this year, as if this were in his gift, as if some crazy-go-nuts Home Secretary wouldn’t say something that made a mockery of such certainty.
Well as of this morning he is free of Suella Braverman, which ought to dampen demand for pricey police overtime.
The latest City expectation is that inflation on Wednesday will come in at 4.8% according to Refinitiv, or 4.7% according to Bloomberg.
Heathrow now world's #4 airport
09:29 , Daniel O'Boyle
Heathrow is now the world’s fourth-busiest airport, as new figures today show 7 million passengers flew through the West London hub in October.
Passenger numbers were up 18% from last year, thanks to a booming half-term, with Dubai, New York and Los Angeles among the most popular destinations.
That came despite bad weather threatening to disrupt flight schedules.
That was enough for Heathrow to overtake Denver to move into the top four most popular airports in the world, according to travel data provider OAG. Atlanta - a hub for US giant Delta - remains in first place, followed by Dubai and Tokyo. Before the pandemic hit, Heathrow was ranked seventh.
Over the last year, 77.8 million passengers have flown through Heathrow, up by almost 40% compared to a year earlier.
Air travel has boomed in 2023, as holidays appear immune to the cost-of-living cutbacks that have hit other leisure sectors.
The airport is preparing for a busy Christmas, preparing retail promotions to take advantage of the increase in travellers.
Tullow in debt refinancing
09:19 , Simon Hunt
Tullow Oil has secured a fresh five-year loan facility as the oil and gas exploration business seeks to manage its heavy debt burden.
The $400 million (£327 million) debt deal was agreed with mining giant Glencore and allows Tullow to refinance loan notes maturing in 2026. The firm faces interest rates as high as 15% for any amounts drawn under the facility.
Tullow’s net debt position stood at $1.9 billion at the end of June.
CEO Rahul Dhir said the deal “demonstrates our ability to access long term capital from a variety of sources and this facility is a material step in our refinancing strategy.”
Tullow shares rallied 6.8% to 32.5p.
Market snapshot with gold at three-week low
08:55 , Daniel O'Boyle
Take a look at today's market snapshot as the price of gold dips to a three-week low as investors eye rising US interest rates.
Phoenix upgrade boosts shares, FTSE 100 higher
08:28 , Graeme Evans
The FTSE 100 index is 28.87 points higher at 7389.42, with Phoenix Group the best performer after it upgraded near-term cash generation targets.
The new guidance, which boosted shares by 7% or 34.4p to 498.6p, follows the combination of a funds merger bringing together legacy Phoenix Life and Standard Life customers into a single legal entity.
BAE Systems, which was the best performing stock during Friday’s blue-chip sell-off, added a penny to 1104.5p after sticking to the upgraded guidance it gave with interim results.
Diageo shares remained under pressure after its profit warning, with shares down a further 26.5p to 2823.5p as Deutsche Bank analysts lowered their price target to 2550p.
The FTSE 250 index added 16.30 points to 17,869.39, aided by a results-day rise of 3% or 10.9p to 324.6p for the offices and retail property landlord British Land.
Move back to the office boosts British Land
07:59 , Michael Hunter
Profits and dividends are up at British Land, as demand for leases increases at major player in London's office market.
The owner of the Broadgate Centre in the City and Regent's Place in Kings Cross said reported underlying first-half profit of £142 million, up 3.4%. It lifted its dividend by almost 5% to 12.16p per share, Occupancy rates were above 96%, helped by a demand for high quality and central office space.
Its portfolio valuation took a hit from rising interest rates, which gave yield-chasing investors other safety places to seek returns.
British Land's move into urban logistics centres in London, which handle the last mile of deliveries in the capital, also helped the performance.
Simon Carter, CEO said:
"We are benefitting from our decision to pursue a value-add strategy across campuses, retail parks and London urban logistics. These submarkets have the strongest occupational fundamentals and highest rental growth within the office, retail and logistics sectors."
Lloyd's syndicate group's plan for new London listing collapses
07:26 , Daniel O'Boyle
The London Stock Exchange suffered another blow this morning, as one of the year’s rare new listings has collapsed.
London Innovation Underwriters Limited, a group of syndicates in the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, was set to merge with blank-cheque company Financials Acquisition Corp this month in a £300 million deal. Led by William Allen, LIU was intended to give public-market investors exposure to the centuries-old risk market.
But today, the two entities revealed that the deal had collapsed, following “insufficient demand” for its shares.
“Whilst fundamental support for the Business Combination was strong, with interest expressed from a globally and stylistically diverse set of investors, the level of demand has been insufficient to reach the Minimum Cash Condition,” LIU said.
“ The Company continues to believe that it offers an optimised structure for accessing the Lloyd's of London insurance market in a capital, cost and fiscally efficient way, however, given the volatile capital markets, it has proven too difficult to fund this through a public offering.
“The Company continues to believe that it offers an optimised structure for accessing the Lloyd's of London insurance market in a capital, cost and fiscally efficient way, however, given the volatile capital markets, it has proven too difficult to fund this through a public offering.”
New listings have been few and far between this year. Soda Ash maker We Soda had planned a float that would have been the year’s biggest, but U-turned weeks later, blaming “extreme investor caution”. Fintech CAB Payments did successfully list on the exchange, but it has been one of the worst-performing new floats in recent memory as its share price tumbled after a profit warning.
FTSE 100 seen higher, inflation and US debt in focus
07:19 , Graeme Evans
London’s FTSE 100 index is set for a steadier session ahead of this week’s release of inflation figures on both sides of the Atlantic.
The updates due in the US tomorrow and the UK on Wednesday will test recent market optimism that interest rates have finally peaked.
Economists are expecting a big fall in the UK’s inflation rate from 6.7% to 4.8%, but with the core level still at 5.8%.
The rate peak hopes recently contributed to eight successive gains for the S&P 500 index, with the US benchmark also 1.6% higher on Friday
It was a different story in Europe, where the FTSE 100 index gave up 1.2% and the Cac 40 fell by 1% in Paris.
Today’s session will provide an opportunity to catch up on the Wall Street performance, with IG Index futures pointing to a 0.3% increase at 7381.
However, US sentiment may be impacted later after Friday evening’s move by Moody’s to cut the country’s AAA debt rating outlook to negative.
Recap: Friday's top stories
06:46 , Daniel O'Boyle
Good morning from the City desk of the London Evening Standard. He's a reminder of Friday's top stories:
GDP flatlined in the third quarter, enough to avoid a recession...for now
Drink stocks across Europe tumbled as Diageo issued a shock profit warning, blaming a sudden downturn in sales in Latin America and the Caribbean
Builder Redrow said the housing market has remained subdued during the Autumn amid sky-high interest rates
Central London office lettings are forecast to hit around 8.5 million sq ft this year, well below pre-2020 figures but pointing towards a new post-Covid ‘normal’, according to research published today
The 'rooftop forest' building project that went bust
And: NatWest cancelled £7.6 million of former boss Alison Rose's payoff... but still left her with £1.7 million
