BT unveils network investment, Morrisons sales keep improving

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to bounce back with a 22-point rise on Thursday morning.

Stocks to watch

BT Group unveiled a £6bn, three-year network upgrade programme for its Openreach and EE businesses, including laying ultrafast fibre-optic broadband lines to around two million homes and businesses. Hailing a landmark year in which the telecoms giant completed the EE acquisition, chief executive Gavin Patterson also revealed a 9% rise in profits before tax to £3.5bn from a 6% gain in revenue to £18.9bn.

RSA Insurance said first quarter underwriting results were “good” with operating profits up strongly as a consequence. Net written premiums were down slightly quarter-on-quarter to £1.57bn from £1.59bn and the heavyweight insurer said it saw positive prior year profit emergence ahead of planned levels, "though likely to remain volatile on a quarterly basis”.

Like-for-like first quarter sales at Morrisons increased 0.7% without fuel and 1.2% with it, the supermarket chain's second consecutive quarter of positive growth. "We are encouraged by progress across our six priorities. There is still much to do and our colleagues are working very hard to improve the shopping trip and save customers every penny we can,” said chief executive David Potts.

Newspaper round-up

The European Commission is likely to block Telefonica’s sale of the British telecom business O2 to Hutchison group in Hong Kong due to fears it would inflict higher prices on British consumers, a source told AFP on Wednesday. “We expect European competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, to block the sale,” said a source close to the matter, indicating that a decision was expected this month. – Guardian

Liberty Global, the media company that owns Virgin Media in the UK, plans to donate up to £500,000 to the campaign to keep Britain in Europe in one of the largest donations from the corporate sector. The donation, which has to be approved by Liberty Global shareholders, will match the amount already pledged by Goldman Sachs, with a number of other banks also donating lower six-figure amounts. – Financial Times

Britain’s leading employers’ organisation will tell the government on Thursday that it needs to back a new industrial strategy to halt the decline of manufacturing and spread prosperity to the less well-off parts of the country. Carolyn Fairbairn, the director general of the CBI will strongly criticise the lack of preparedness for the crisis that has engulfed the steel industry as she urges ministers to do more to help in three key areas of weakness: skills, energy costs and spending on research and development. – Guardian

Executives at Royal Bank of Scotland faced accusations of taking home “obscene” pay packets and being “glorified civil servants” at a stormy annual meeting. The session, held at the bank’s Gogarburn headquarters on the outskirts of Edinburgh, lasted more than two hours as shareholders took turns to grill the board on a variety of issues. There were several questions on pay packages and the closure of branches. – The Times

US close

US stocks fell on Wednesday as investors digested a softer-than-expected reading on the health of the labour market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 ended down 0.6%, while the Nasdaq closed off 0.8%.

According to private consultancy ADP, US employers added 156,000 jobs in April, compared with a downwardly-revised 194,000 in March and much weaker than expectations of 196,000.