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| Yesterday’s UK 100 Leaders | Price (p) | % Chg |
| Fresnillo PLC | 12,436.0 | 2.8% |
| Schroders PLC | 379.2 | 2.4% |
| Antofagasta PLC | 2,417.0 | 1.0% |
| Centrica PLC | 147.6 | 1.0% |
| Bae Systems PLC | 1,385.0 | 1.0% |
| Yesterday’s UK 100 Laggards | Price (p) | % Chg |
| BT Group PLC | 127.4 | -3.7% |
| Vodafone Group PLC | 75.1 | -2.7% |
| Easyjet PLC | 462.2 | -2.7% |
| Rs Group PLC | 807.8 | -2.6% |
| Smith (Ds) PLC | 368.0 | -2.1% |
| Major World Indices | Price | % Chg | 1 YEAR |
| UK 100 INDEX | 8,416 | -0.1% | 8.3% |
| DOW JONES INDUS. AVG | 39,873 | 0.2% | 19.8% |
| DAX INDEX | 18,727 | -0.2% | 15.4% |
| NIKKEI 225 | 38,617 | -0.9% | 24.4% |
| S&P/ASX 200 INDEX | 7,848 | -0.1% | 8.1% |
| Commodities | Units | Price | % Chg |
| WTI Crude Oil (Nymex) | USD/bbl. | 79.26 | -0.68% |
| Brent Crude (ICE) | USD/bbl. | 82.21 | -0.81% |
| Gold Spot | USD/t oz. | 2,416 | -0.2% |
| Copper (Comex) | USd/lb. | 505 | -1.1% |
Click graph to enlarge
The UK 100 called to open +4 points at 8,374. The UK 100 looks set to edge higher this morning, as results from Nvidia brightened the mood and fresh off the news that a general election will take place in the UK, in just six weeks time. U.S. stocks traded lower Wednesday as the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s May meeting raised concerns of persistent inflation, indicating the central bank may not cut interest rates soon. The Dow Jones declined 201.95 points, or 0.51%, closing at 39,671.04. It was the 30-stock index’s worst session in May. The S&P lost 0.27% to end at 5,307.01, and the Nasdaq dropped 0.18% to close at 16,801.54.
AJ Bell reports a H1 pretax profit of £61.4m, up from £41.9m YoY, as they are confident that long-term growth opportunity in the UK will remain intact. Their assets under management increased to £5.8bn, up from £4.7bn in September last year.
Aviva posted a 16% rise in general insurance gross written premiums to £2.7bn in Q1, helped by strong performance in Britain. They also saw a 13% rise in retirement sales, driven by higher volumes in bulk purchase annuities. They remain confident in meeting its group targets, including operating profit of £2bn by 2026.
Hargreaves Lansdown have rejected a takeover approach from a group of private equity firms including CVC Advisers.
Johnson Matthey reports a FY24 continuing operations pretax profit of £164m, down 52% YoY from £344m.
National Grid will raise around £7bn via a rights issue of 1.09bn new shares, as they step up their investments in energy network infrastructure.
Rolls-Royce tells AGM that they have had a strong start to the year, increasing confidence in 2024 guidance. They are on track for £200m in annualised cost savings by end of 2025.
Tate & Lyle agrees to sell stake in KPS for $350m and the proceeds are to be returned via a share buyback. They report a FY24 pretax profit of £226m, up 49% from £152m YoY.
Vodafone buys back 13.3m shares at an average of 75.29p on Wednesday.
Wizz Air posted a FY net profit, helped by robust demand, higher utilization of operational fleet and one-off compensation received for some grounded aircraft. They reported a net profit of 365.9m euros, compared with a net loss of 535m euros a year earlier. This was higher than consensus, which expected of a profit of 350.8m euros.
JP Morgan Upgrades Unilever to Overweight from Underweight (3 Buys / 6 Holds / 2 Sells)
UK
AJ Bell PLC
Aviva PLC
Bytes Technology Group PLC*
Energean PLC
Great Portland Estates PLC
Hill & Smith Holdings PLC
International Distribution Services PLC*
Investc PLC
Johnson Matthey PLC
National Grid PLC
Petershill Partners PLC
QinetiQ Group PLC
Tate & Lyle PLC
US
Medtronic
Intuit
UK
C&C Group PLC*
Capital Gearing Trust PLC*
Intertek Group
US
None
German HCOB Composite PMI
German HCOB Manufacturing PMI
German COB Services PMI
EU HCOB Composite PMI
EU HCOB Manufacturing PMI
EU HCOB Services PMI
UK S&P Global/CIPS Composite PMI
UK S&P Global/CIPS Manufacturing PMI
UK S&P Global/CIPS Services PMI
US Initial Jobless Claims
US S&P Global Composite PMI
US S&P Global Manufacturing PMI
US S&P Global Services PMI
EU Consumer Confidence
US New Home Sales Change
Fed’s Bostic speech
UK GfK Consumer Confidence
UK 100 companies going ex-dividend on 23rd May 2024:
DCC
Whitbread
Imperial Brands
Diploma
UK 250 companies going ex-dividend on 23rd May 2024:
TI Fluid Systems
NextEnergy Solar Fund
Diversified Energy Company
Bluefield Solar Income Fund
BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust
Tritax EuroBox GBP
HICL Infrastructure
Tritax Big Box REIT
Grainger
Spire Healthcare Group
Scottish American Investment Company
Bellway
BlackRock Greater Europe Inv Trust
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