Bunzl buying US-based DDS, Wolseley appoints Mike Powell as CFO

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open nine points higher on Wednesday, having closed up 0.14% at 7,263.44 on Tuesday.

Stocks to watch

International distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl on Wednesday said it had agreed to buy US-based Diversified Distribution Systems (DDS) for an undisclosed sum. DDS distributes not-for-resale goods and value-added services to retailers and other general distribution customers, principally throughout North America but also in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Bunzl said. Its revenue in 2016 was $312m, and completion of the acquisition remained subject to clearance of the transaction by the Federal Trade Commission, the relevant US competition authority.

Building materials distributor Wolseley has appointed BBA Aviation's Mike Powell as chief financial officer and an executive director, effective from 1 June. Powell is currently finance director at BBA Aviation, a position he has held since July 2014, and was previously chief financial officer at AZ Electronic Materials, a Luxembourg-based chemicals company and Nippon Sheet Glass, a Tokyo-based glass manufacturer.

CRH posted its full-year results for the 2016 calendar year on Wednesday, with sales revenue of €27.1bn, a 15% rise year-on-year, or a 4% proforma improvement, while EBITDA was up 41% on a reported basis to €3.13bn, or up 10% on a proforma basis. The FTSE 100 firm’s EBITDA margin was ahead 210 basis points to 11.5%, or 60 basis points on a proforma basis, while its operating profit was up 59% to €2.03bn.

ITV has pledged to pay a special dividend on top of a full year dividend up 20% as it reported a decline in broadcast revenues for 2016 and warned that advertising revenues would fall in the early months of 2017. With broadcast and online revenue down 1% total turnover rose 4% thanks to good growth from the ITV Studios television production arm, feeding through to roughly flat pre-tax profits .

Newspaper round-up

Nissan has called on the government to provide investment to help rebuild the UK’s car parts business so it can replace components that come from overseas after the country leaves the EU. A Commons select committee was told by a senior Nissan executive that the company was forced to source up to 85% of its components from Japan, China and Europe, as the necessary car parts were no longer produced in the UK. If these parts were made in the UK instead, Nissan would spend up to £2bn a year with British suppliers. – Guardian

Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox is expected to formally notify the European competition regulator of its £11.7bn takeover offer for Sky later this week, after which the UK culture secretary will have to decide whether to launch an investigation into the extent of Murdoch’s control of UK media. From the point the European Commission makes Fox’s bid notification public, Karen Bradley will have 10 working days to decide whether to issue a public interest intervention notice, or PIIN. – Guardian

Dyson has given British engineering a vote of confidence, unveiling plans to make its UK research and development centre 10 times bigger. Sir James Dyson - who has already invested £250m into the company’s global base in Malmesbury, Wiltshire - has bought a nearby World War II airfield is developing it into a new technical centre. – Telegraph

Philip Hammond held an emergency meeting with the heads of Britain’s biggest insurers yesterday in an attempt to stop what they described as a “crazy” decision to raise personal injury payouts, lifting the cost of car insurance for young drivers by more than £100. In a statement last night, the chancellor agreed to launch an “urgent” consultation after meeting the bosses of 15 motor and commercial liability insurers to head off threatened legal action. – The Times

Questions were raised yesterday about the Bank of England’s newest deputy governor after she openly disagreed with its chief economist over the effects of quantitative easing. Charlotte Hogg, who takes over from Dame Nemat Shafik today as the deputy for markets and banking, said that she could see no evidence of a bubble in gilt markets and that QE had had “a very limited effect” on gilt prices. – The Times

US close

US stocks' dozen-day winning run came to an end on Tuesday after the latest reading on economic growth disappointed and as increased rate hike expectations lifted the dollar and Treasury yields.

After reaching its 12th successive peak the previous day, the Dow Jones index finally took a breather, falling just over 25 points to 20,812.24, while the S&P 500 retreated six points to 2,363.64 and the Nasdaq composite 36 to 5,825.44.

Having touched 18-month highs last week, West Texas Intermediate was down 0.2% on the day to $53.92 per barrel, while Brent crude was 0.6% weaker at $55.59.

The dollar was up 0.46% against the pound to 1.238 and 0.1% versus the euro to 1.0576 and was 0.1% stronger against the yen at 112.83.

Comments from New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said during an interview with CNN that the case for raising interest rates has become "a lot more compelling", saw the greenback reverse earlier softness.

However, clouding the issue, the US fourth-quarter gross domestic product reading remained unchanged at 1.9% to miss expectations of a 2.1% upward revision.