Berkeley reservations retreat, Aveva walks away again
London open
The FTSE 100 is forecast to bounce back with a 27-point rise on Wednesday morning after a four-day losing streak.
Stocks to watch
Full year pre-tax profits at property group Berkeley fell to £530m from £539.7m due to reduced ground rent sales. The company added that uncertainty over a possible Brexit vote was impacting current transaction levels with reservations over the five months to May 2016 down 20%, on reduced new launches in the run-up to the EU referendum on June 23.
Aveva Group has walked away from a second round of talks with French suitor Schneider Electric and has applied for its share to resume trading after their suspension. Reports earlier this week suggested interest in a possible buy-out had been renewed after discussions had fallen apart late last year, with media reporting the French energy giant wanted to take a majority stake in Aveva in exchange for around £550m in cash.
Barry Nightingale has been appointed as chief financial officer of embattled Restaurant Group on Wednesday, starting with the company and joining the board on 20 June. The FTSE 250 firm, which has seen its shares crunched after a succession of profit warnings, said Nightingale is an experienced CFO, having recently held the role at Monarch Airlines as well as at bookmaker Betfred.
Newspaper round-up
George Osborne will threaten today to put 2p on the basic rate of income tax, raise fuel duty and slash spending on health, education, defence and pensions in an emergency budget in the weeks after a Brexit vote. In the Remain campaign’s most explicit ultimatum to voters, the chancellor outlines tax rises and cuts to frontline services of £30 billion, which are being readied in case Britain opts to leave the European Union next week. – The Times
Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q, will face further pressure over pay and conditions for staff at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday when campaigners will ask the DIY retailer to reverse cuts made this year. Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, will ask the board to pay the independently verified living wage, in the latest move of a campaign backed by ShareAction and Citizens UK. – Guardian
Michael Sherwood, the co-head of Goldman Sachs in Europe, has bowed to pressure from MPs to appear before a parliamentary inquiry into the collapse of high street retailer BHS a year after it was sold by his client Sir Philip Green. BHS became one the UK’s most controversial corporate failures when it collapsed into administration little more than 12 months after Sir Philip sold it for £1 to a consortium led by ex-bankrupt Dominic Chappell. Its closure has put 11,000 jobs at risk and triggered a £275m rescue of its pension scheme. – Financial Times
Sir Philip Green will face MPs to give “his side of the very sad story” behind BHS’s collapse, which has put 11,000 jobs at risk and left a huge pension burden. The former BHS owner had threatened not to attend late last week after accusing Frank Field, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, of bias. - Telegraph
US close
US stocks ended a touch lower on Tuesday as investors remained risk-averse amid worries about the possibility the UK might vote to leave the European Union and ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.3%, the S&P 500 slid 0.2% and the Nasdaq dipped 0.1%.
Polls this week showing growing support for Brexit ahead of the 23 June referendum weighed on investor sentiment.