Capita seeing delays since referendum, ITV ad revenues decline

London open

The FTSE was seen rising 16 points on Wednesday morning from the positive finish at 6,724.03 the prior day.

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Services group Capita said the UK decision to leave the European Union had increased uncertainty, particularly in the financial services sector, and it was “continuing to experience some delays in decision making in the short term”. However, it added that it expected this to be “more than offset in the medium-term by incremental opportunities that arise as clients respond to the impacts of the UK leaving the EU”.

ITV lifted external revenue 11% to £1.5bn in the first half of the year, driven by non-advertising revenue as it cautioned that net ad revenue (NAR) is likely to be down around 1% in the first nine months of the year. Management have put in place plans to cut £25m of costs and with the strong growth from its production and online arms generating healthy cash flow there was confidence enough to increase the interim dividend 26% to 2.4p.

Newspaper round-up

A powerful investor group has thrown down the gauntlet to companies over "excessive" and "ineffectual" executive pay, presenting a 10-point plan it says will “rebuild trust” over bosses’ high levels remuneration. The report from the Investment Association, which represents firms managing £5.5 trillion of assets, said it wanted to “simplify pay structures for company bosses” and “improve the alignment of their interests with those of shareholders who own their businesses”. – Telegraph

Dominic Chappell, the former owner of BHS, will attempt to repair his battered reputation on Wednesday after MPs damned him as the “most egregious example of individual greed”. The former bankrupt has confirmed that he received a legal letter from Sir Philip Green, who has threatened Mr Chappell and three of his other Retail Acquisition directors with legal action following their disastrous deal. – Telegraph

Britain has suffered a bigger fall in real wages since the financial crisis than any other advanced country apart from Greece, research shows. A report by the TUC, published on Wednesday, shows that real earnings have declined more than 10% since the credit crunch began in 2007, leaving the UK equal bottom in a league table of wages growth. – Guardian

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has told investors that augmented reality is going to be “huge” and that the company is investing in the technology. Responding to a question about Pokémon Go, Cook said that the game had shown that “AR can be really great”. “We have been and continue to invest in AR in the long run,” he said. “We’ll see whether it’s the next computing platform, but regardless it will be huge.” – Guardian

US close

US stocks closed mixed and relatively flat on Tuesday as the avalanche of earnings continued and investors awaited the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.1%, while the S&P 500 was 0.03% higher and the Nasdaq added 0.13%.

Investors waded through a veritable deluge of earnings news.