Diploma posts strong set of results, Currys lifts guidance

London open

The FTSE 100 was expected to open 26 points higher on Monday, having closed up 0.31% on Friday at 7,754.62.

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Diploma posted a strong set of results for the first half of its financial year. Revenues were up ahead by 30% to £582.8m and by 10% on an organic basis. It also said that the back half had begun "positively", which led management to raise its full-year guidance.

UK electricals retailer Currys on Monday lifted its full-year earnings guidance after trading in the final two months of its fiscal year were better-than-expected. Adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to April 29 is now expected to come in at £110 – 120m compared with previous guidance of £104m, citing improved profits driven by continued gross margin improvements and management focus on cost efficiencies.

Newspaper round-up

Record high turnout in a tightly fought election has presented the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with the greatest challenge to his leadership in two decades, with signs that the vote was heading for a runoff even as Erdoğan attempted to claim victory before an official vote count had ended. Speaking to a jubilant crowd of supporters, an energised and delighted Erdoğan declared: “The fact that the election results have not yet been finalised does not diminish the fact that our nation’s choice is clearly in favour of us.” - Guardian

Graduates entering the labour market face real terms hits of up to £6,500 to their wages as starting salaries fail to keep pace with rampant inflation. University leavers starting work now are thousands of pounds worse off than before the pandemic, Telegraph analysis of Indeed data shows. The average graduate entering the job market today has a starting salary of £26,500, up from £24,000 at the start of 2019. - Telegraph

President Zelensky will be in London today for “substantive negotiations” with the prime minister, Rishi Sunak. The Ukrainian leader wrote on Twitter that the UK was a “leader” in supporting Ukraine and that “when it comes to expanding our capabilities on the ground and in the air”. - The Times

The Isle of Man has for decades been dominated by offshore financial services, but now its government is planning a push for a new kind of economic growth: medicinal cannabis. The British crown dependency is hoping to licence as many as 10 firms by the end of 2025 to grow and export medicinal cannabis products from the island as part of a strategy to spur development. - Guardian

An Irish property tycoon behind Claridge's said he wanted to hire a "non-gay" manager to run the luxury London hotel, according to documents filed in the High Court. Patrick McKillen is also said to have described a female contractor as a "Spanish c---". The allegations mark the latest twist in a row between Mr McKillen and the Qatari royal Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, who controls the Maybourne Hotel Group, which owns Claridge's as well as the Berkeley and The Connaught hotels. - Telegraph

US close

Stocks on Wall Street closed weaker on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.03% at 33,300.62.

The S&P 500 lost 0.16% to 4,124.08, and the Nasdaq Composite was off 0.35% at 12,284.74.