Halma makes two acquisitions, Fresnillo says production on track

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open seven points lower on Wednesday, having closed up 0.2% on Tuesday at 7,389.70.

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Halma announced two acquisitions worth £46.5m on Wednesday. In the environmental and analysis sector, its Alicat Scientific subsidiary acquired Alpha Instrumatics, a UK-based company specialising in high-precision trace moisture measurement devices, expanding Alicat's product range. In the healthcare sector, IZI Medical Products had meanwhile acquired AprioMed for SEK 130m, enhancing its offerings for minimally-invasive procedures related to bone biopsies.

Lloyds Bank reported a massive jump in third quarter profits as it continued to cash in on higher interest rates, despite a reduction in lending to customers amid tough macroeconomic conditions. Pre-tax profit for the three months to September 30 soared to £1.85bn from £576m a year earlier. Underlying net interest income rose 1% to £3.44bn with the net interest margin – the difference between loans and savings rates – up 10 basis points year on year to 3.08% but down six basis points in the quarter “given the expected mortgage and deposit pricing headwinds”, the bank said on Wednesday.

Precious metals miner Fresnillo said it remains on track to hit full-year production targets despite both silver and gold output falling in the third quarter. Silver production totalled 14.1m ounces in the three months to 30 September, down 5.1% on the second quarter but up 3.8% on last year, as the ramp-up of its new Juanicipio mine offset lower production at Noche Buena as it nears its end of life. Gold output was 132,600 ounces, down 13% on the second quarter and 16.7% lower than last year, after an electrical fault and lower ore grades at the Herradura project, along with a fall-off of volumes from Noche Buena.

Newspaper round-up

Scammers were responsible for nearly 1.4m cases of fraud in the UK during the first half of 2023 – the equivalent of one every 12 seconds – with romance scams and ID theft among the fastest growing categories. Overall, criminals stole £580m in the first six months of the year, according to the banking trade association UK Finance, suggesting households are set to lose more than £1bn to fraudsters during 2023. – Guardian

The EU is within “touching distance” of passing the world’s first laws on artificial intelligence, giving Brussels the power to shut down services that cause harm to society, says the AI tsar who has spent the last four years developing the legislation. A forthcoming EU AI Act could introduce rules for everything from homemade chemical weapons made through AI to copyright theft of music, art and literature, with negotiations between MEPs, EU member states and the European Commission over final text coming to a head on Wednesday. – Guardian

The world is at a “tipping point” on debt that threatens to spark a global reckoning after years of government borrowing binges, the boss of HSBC has warned. Noel Quinn, chief executive of the bank, which is one of the world’s biggest, said countries risked being “hit hard” after allowing borrowing to balloon in the wake of the financial crisis and pandemic. – Telegraph

Sales at Microsoft have surged as the technology giant cashes in on the artificial intelligence (AI) gold rush in a race against Silicon Valley rival Google. Revenues at Microsoft jumped 13pc to $56.5bn (£46.5bn) as boss Satya Nadella claimed the company was “making the age of AI real”. The technology company has invested in ChatGPT-developer OpenAI and launched a series of AI-powered tools for its Office and Word products in recent months. – Telegraph

Sir Pascal Soriot has said it would be a failure of his leadership if AstraZeneca did not appoint an internal candidate to eventually succeed him, as he committed himself to leading the FTSE 100 drugs company for another five years. Soriot, 64, has overseen the transformation of AstraZeneca since he became chief executive in 2012, turning down a £69 billion takeover offer from Pfizer and transforming the Cambridge business into one of Britain’s biggest public companies, valued at about £172 billion, after reviving its drugs pipeline. – The Times

US close

US markets rose on Tuesday with the Dow snapping a four-day losing streak as a raft of blue chips impressed the market with better-than-expected earnings.

Traders were reacting positively to earnings from Spotify, General Electric, Coca-Cola, Spotify, 3M and General Motors, which all surpassed estimates with their third-quarter results.

According to data from FactSet, of the 23% of S&P 500 constituents that have already released results this earnings season, more than three quarters have beaten consensus forecasts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.6%, the S&P 500 gained 0.7%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.9%.

Heavyweights Alphabet and Microsoft were in focus ahead of their results due out after the closing bell, with optimism rising high that the two giant tech stocks will continue their recent run, having risen 52% and 36% so far this year, respectively.