IAG swings to full-year profit, Hays extends share buyback programme

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 14 points higher on Friday, having closed down 0.29% on Thursday at 7,907.72.

Stocks to watch

British Airways owner IAG swung to a full year profit as international travel recovered from the Covid pandemic and said it had agreed to buy out the 80% of Air Europa it does not own for €400m in a move to turn Madrid into a major airport hub. The group, which also owns Iberia and Aer Lingus, reported an operating profit of €1.25bn in 2022 as Covid travel restrictions were lifted, compared with a loss of €2.7bn a year earlier.

Hays updated the market on its share buyback programme on Friday, reporting that in the six months ended 31 December, 50.2 million shares were purchased and cancelled at a cost of £57.6m. The FTSE 250 recruitment firm initially announced a buyback of up to £63m worth of shares in June last year. It said it had now entered a further agreement with Jefferies to repurchase up to a further £18.2m worth of shares between now and the end of June.

Newspaper round-up

Rogue landlords are conning the government out of millions of pounds by fraudulently claiming housing benefits for so-called “ghost tenants”, it has been revealed. Criminal gangs are among those buying cheap property to convert into housing for vulnerable people, in some cases claiming welfare payments for tenants who do not live there. – Guardian

A cryptocurrency investment firm with links to two all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) appears to have disappeared, leaving some investors fearing they have lost tens of thousands of pounds and raising the prospect of further questions being asked about the role of APPGs in parliament. Phoenix Community Capital established itself last year as a cryptocurrency project and investment scheme, which it said at one point was valued at $800m (£665m). It was a sponsor of one APPG, and its co-founder, Luke Sullivan, spoke at an event for a second APPG , as well as appearing as a panellist for events hosted by peers in parliament. – Guardian

Gas network bosses have accused peers of making unevidenced claims about the use of hydrogen for heating, as they warned ministers that heat pumps will never be viable for millions of British households. In a letter to ministers, the chief executives of five gas network companies hit back at a House of Lords committee which claimed that using hydrogen to heat homes was “not a serious option”. – Telegraph

A biotechnology business that focuses on cancer and fibrotic disease treatments has become the latest company to set out a plan to abandon the London stock market after unveiling a £353 million reverse takeover of a US rival. Redx Pharma announced yesterday that it had agreed to an all-share merger with Jounce Therapeutics, a struggling cancer immunotherapy business in Massachusetts. – The Times

The shift to electric cars has continued with combined battery-electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid electric vehicle production in January rising by almost 50 per cent compared with a year ago. The latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show that the total number of electric or hybrid vehicles produced was 28,329, representing more than four in every ten cars made in January, a near-record monthly share. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street finished slightly higher on Thursday, following the release of a mixed batch of economic data.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.33% at 33,153.91, as the S&P 500 added 0.53% to 4,012.32 and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 0.72% at 11,590.40.

Earlier, the Department of Labor had reported declines for both initial and secondary weekly unemployment claims which appeared to show a still very tight jobs market.

However, Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, noted how weather had again been unseasonably warm during the week ended 18 February.

Those figures came alongside other data showing a slightly slower pace of expansion in US gross domestic product of 2.7% for over the three months to December, compared to a preliminary reading of 2.9%.