ARM gets off to strong start, Travis Perkins a solid one

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to fall 22 points on Wednesday morning, giving up some of the gains made to finish at 6,405.35 the day before.

Stocks to watch

First quarter results from ARM Holdings indicated the microchip processor maker remains at the forefront of technology and analysts forecasts. Revenues at the Cambridge-based company of $398m were up 14% year-on-year and 22% ahead in sterling terms, while profit margins moderated to 48.6% and earnings rose 15% to 8.2p, all ahead of market expectations.

Builders’ merchant Travis Perkins reported a first quarter of solid growth, with total sales growth of 5%. On a comparable days basis, the company saw sales growth of 6.2%, with like-for-like sales improving 4.2%. “All of our businesses demonstrated good growth in the first quarter of 2016, driven by the recovery in the RMI market and by the investments we have made to improve our customer propositions as part of our five-year plan,” said Travis Perkins chief executive John Carter.

Newspaper round-up

Thousands of British steel jobs could be saved after managers at Tata’s UK steel unit stepped up ambitious plans to buy the business from its Indian parent. Bosses led by Stuart Wilkie, who heads Tata’s strip steel business in Britan, called in staff on Tuesday to brief them about a possible management buyout. – Telegraph

Proposals by the UK government to stop collecting information showing how the wealthy pass on their assets from one generation to another have been condemned by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a leading tax and spending thinktank. The IFS said Britain was in danger of allowing a misleading picture to emerge of its richest families, the top 1% whose wealth is at least £1.4m including the value of their home, that underestimates their wealth. – Guardian

One of the country’s oldest and largest landlords has called an end to the boom in high-end commercial and residential property in the UK, saying that it is planning for a correction in prices in “the near future”. Grosvenor Group, which manages £6.7 billion of property assets across the world for the Duke of Westminster, 64, Britain’s richest man, said it was “only a matter of time” before the market turns after years of double-digit growth. – The Times

There were signs last night of the toll that a long price war against America’s shale oil producers is taking on Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is raising $10 billion from a consortium of international banks as it moves to boost financial reserves that have been depleted by falling revenues from lower oil prices. – The Times

US close

US stocks ended mixed in a narrow range on Tuesday, with gains on the back of rallying oil prices offset by weakness in the technology sector, which weighed on the Nasdaq.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both ended up 0.3% but the Nasdaq closed off 0.4%.

Energy issues lent support as oil continued to rebound from the lows seen after the meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Doha on Sunday, which failed to yield an agreement to freeze production.