British American Tobacco backs FY expectations, Reckitt appoints new CEO

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The FTSE 100 was called to open 18 points lower at 7,380.

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British American Tobacco reaffirmed full year expectations with constant currency revenue growth in the mid-upper half of long-term guidance range of 3-5%.

“We are on track for a good performance in 2019 with revenue and adjusted operating profit growth in line with our guidance and delivery of high single figure FY adjusted diluted EPS growth at constant rates of exchange," the company said in a trading statement ahead of interim results.

Consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser has appointed Pesico executive Laxman Narasimhan to replace Rakesh Kapoor as chief executive officer when he steps down.

He would join the consumer goods giant as CEO-designate and be appointed to the board as an executive director starting from 16 July, being expected to take over as group CEO beginning from 1 September.

Newspaper round-up

More than 5 million workers across Britain are in low-paid and insecure work, leaving families struggling to make ends meet, according to a campaign calling for more firms to offer guaranteed hours to their staff. According to research published by the Living Wage Foundation, workers in Wales, the north-east and West Midlands experience the highest rates of low-paid insecure work in the country. – Guardian

Oil giant Mobil sought to make tax-exempt donations to leading universities, civic groups and arts programmes to promote the company’s interests and undermine environmental regulation, according to internal documents from the early 1990s obtained by the Guardian. The documents shine a light on the ways corporations have used their money to buy influence, amass prestige and shape public policy through grants to academic programmes and advocacy groups. – Guardian

The average tenure of a FTSE 100 boss has lengthened for the first time in three years, with companies increasingly opting for internal candidates to replace outgoing chief executives. The turnover of bosses in the index was 10pc in the financial year to March, down from 14pc the same period the year before, according to the Robert Half FTSE 100 CEO tracker. – Telegraph

Selling “Brand Britain” to Silicon Valley bosses is becoming increasingly tough, Google’s UK head has said, in a sign political uncertainty is unsettling America's technology giants. Ronan Harris, managing director and vice president of Google’s UK and Ireland operations, said he was having to “work a little bit harder to explain what's going on to my counterparts in California”. – Telegraph

US close

The Dow ended its daily winning streak at six on Tuesday as a decline in tech and industrial shares, as well as ongoing trade tensions, weighed on sentiment.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.05% at 26,048.51, while the S&P 500 was 0.03% lower at 2,885.72 and the Nasdaq closed 0.01% weaker at 7,822.57.