Intertek revenues rise, Petershill maintains annual guidance

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The FTSE 100 is expected to open 62 points lower on Wednesday, having closed down 0.1% on Tuesday at 7,762.95.

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Asset manager Petershill maintained annual guidance as its aggregate partner-firm assets under management rose 2% in the first quarter to $290bn, and 9% year-over-year. Aggregate Fee-paying Partner-firm AuM was $195bn, increasing 1% during the quarter and 6% year-over-year. "We reiterate our 2023 guidance and expect partner fee related earnings to increase as we progress through 2023 driven by previously raised AuM becoming fee-paying and additional fee-paying AuM being raised," the company said.

Testing company Intertek held annual guidance as revenues rose 11% in the first four months of the year. Group revenue hit £1.059bn in the period to April 30. On a like-for-like basis sales were up 6.5% on a constant currency basis, with products up 5.5%, trade 5.2% and resources 12.5%. Intertek said its China operations had recovered well with 7.5% LFL revenue growth.

Newspaper round-up

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Sadiq Khan should slash tube fares on Mondays and Fridays to entice more people back to the office, according to a leading think-tank. The Centre for Cities said the work from home "experiment" risked destroying London's status as Britain's growth engine and hurting younger workers. – Telegraph

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US close

Wall Street experienced a downturn on Tuesday, with all major indexes closing in the negative due to ongoing stalemates over the federal debt ceiling negotiations.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.69% to 33,055.51 points, while the S&P 500 lost 1.12% to 4,145.58 points.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite meanwhile shed 1.26% of its value to end the day at 12,560.25.

Despite encouraging reports from both the White House and Republican congressional representatives after Monday's discussions, the lack of any substantial progress on Tuesday dampened market sentiments.

Hopes for a swift resolution were dashed after comments from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who told his party colleagues earlier that the two sides of the negotiations were "not anywhere near close", according to Bloomberg.