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| Yesterday’s UK 100 Leaders | Price (p) | % Chg |
| Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC | 369.8 | 3.1% |
| Smurfit Kappa Group PLC | 3,336.0 | 1.7% |
| JD Sports Fashion PLC | 116.6 | 1.5% |
| Beazley PLC | 650.0 | 1.5% |
| HSBC Holdings PLC | 611.2 | 1.5% |
| Yesterday’s UK 100 Laggards | Price (p) | % Chg |
| St. James’s Place PLC | 499.7 | -19.5% |
| Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC | 5,162.0 | -11.6% |
| Smith & Nephew PLC | 1,048.0 | -5.9% |
| Taylor Wimpey PLC | 134.1 | -4.6% |
| Halma PLC | 2,280.0 | -3.6% |
| Major World Indices | Price | % Chg | 1 YEAR |
| UK 100 INDEX | 7,625 | -0.8% | -3.2% |
| DOW JONES INDUS. AVG | 38,949 | -0.1% | 19.3% |
| DAX INDEX | 17,601 | 0.3% | 14.6% |
| NIKKEI 225 | 39,166 | -0.1% | 42.7% |
| S&P/ASX 200 INDEX | 7,699 | 0.5% | 6.1% |
| Commodities | Units | Price | % Chg |
| WTI Crude Oil (Nymex) | USD/bbl. | 78.32 | -0.28% |
| Brent Crude (ICE) | USD/bbl. | 83.37 | -0.37% |
| Gold Spot | USD/t oz. | 2,038 | 0.2% |
| Copper (Comex) | USd/lb. | 386 | 0.4% |
Click graph to enlarge
The UK 100 called to open +19 points at 7,643. The UK 100 looks set to open the day higher today, making a welcome bright start following yesterday’s decline. On Wall Street yesterday, stocks recovered through the session recouping early declines, The S&P gave up 0.17% to close at 5,069.76. The Nasdaq fell 0.55% to 15,947.74. The Dow Jones shed 23.39 points, or 0.06%, to end at 38,949.02 and notch a third straight day of losses.
CRH is to continue their share buyback programme.
GSK have reached a confidential settlement with Boyd & Steenvord, resolving the Zantac case in California.
Haleon state that they expect higher revenue in 2024, thanks to firm demand for its household products ranging from painkillers to multivitamins. Their organic revenue should rise between 4-6% this year.
Howden Joinery reported a 19% fall in annual profit, hurt by subdued home construction and improvement activities amid a prolonged cost-of-living squeeze. Their pretax profit for the FY came in at £327.6m, down compared with average analyst estimates of £332m.
IAG posted a 3.5bn euro FY operating profit in line with expectations and provided a positive outlook for 2024 on the back of sustained travel demand.
London Stock Exchange Group plans to execute up to £1bn of share buybacks in 2024.
Ocado reported a better-than-expected annual pretax loss of £403.2m and returned to profit at the EBITDA level.
Schroders saw their total assets under management edge up in 2023, in a sign some active managers are beginning to stem flow of client cash shifting to passive rivals. Their total assets under management came in at £750.6bn at the year end, up 2% on the £737.5bn at the start of the year. They also reported net inflows of around £1bn. They reported an operating profit of £661m, down 9% YoY. They will pay a final dividend of 15p per share.
Weir Group report a FY adjusted pretax profit of £411m.
Barclays Downgrades Direct Line Group to Equal Weight from Overweight (6 Buys / 5 Holds / 0 Sells)
UK
CRH
Drax Group
Haleon
Hammerson
Howden Joinary Group
Hunting*
London Stock Exchange Group
Man Group*
Mobico Group
Ocado Group
PPHE Group
Schroders
Serco
Shaftesbury Capital
Spectis
Spire Healthcare*
Vesuvius
Weir Group
US
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Zscaler
UK
CRH
Drax Group
Haleon
Hammerson
Howden Joinary Group
Hunting*
London Stock Exchange Group
Man Group*
Mobico Group
Ocado Group
PPHE Group
Schroders
Serco
Shaftesbury Capital
Spectis
Spire Healthcare*
Vesuvius
Weir Group
US
IMI
Pearson
Rightmove
German Retail Sales
German Unemployment Change
German Unemployment Rate
German Consumer Price Index
German Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices
US Initial Jobless Claims
US Core Personal Consumption Expenditures – Price Index
US Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index
US Pending Home Sales
Japanese Unemployment Rate
UK 100 companies going ex-dividend on 29th February 2024:
Barclays
Diageo
UK 250 companies going ex-dividend on 29th February 2024:
Diversified Energy Company
Plus500
Ashmore Group
JLEN Environmental Assets Group
North Atlantic Smaller Companies Inv Tst
HICL Infrastructure
Hargreaves Lansdown
LondonMetric Property
Hays
Scottish American Investment Company
Alliance Trust
Genus
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