Vodafone operating profit slides, Imperial Brands revenue flat

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 14 points lower on Tuesday, having closed up 0.89% on Monday at 7,425.83.

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Vodafone Group reported 4.2% growth in first-half group service revenue on Tuesday, driven by Europe and Africa, while Germany and Vodafone Business also saw positive growth. However, group revenue declined by 4.3% due to foreign exchange rate fluctuations and prior-year business disposals, leading to a 44.2% plunge in operating profit. It reiterated its full-year guidance for “broadly flat” adjusted EBITDA of around €13.3bn and about €3.3bn in adjusted free cash flow, and declared an interim dividend per share of 4.5 euro cents.

Tobacco and vaping giant Imperial Brands announced that full-year revenues were flat as lower tobacco volumes were offset by strong growth in next-generation products (NGP). Reported revenues for the 12 months to 30 September totalled £32.5bn, down 0.2% year-on-year. Tobacco and NGP net revenue grew +1.4% at constant currency when excluding Russian operations in the prior-year comparator after Imperial's exit from the region in April 2022. This comprised 0.7% growth in tobacco and 26.4% from NGP.

Newspaper round-up

Ministers have come under further pressure to expand the financial support for Britons struggling with the cost of living crisis, after a committee of MPs found some had “slipped through the safety net”. The cross-party work and pensions committee said that support payments designed to help people cope with soaring household bills had proved insufficient to meet the scale of the problem and offered only a “short-term reprieve” for many. – Guardian

Avon, the beauty company famous for building a global business by making house-to-house visits, is to open its first physical UK stores in its 137-year history. The company, known for its “ding dong! Avon calling” slogan used in its ads and by doorstep sales representatives, has had to strategically rethink its business model after its 5 million reps had to stop making Avon house calls during the Covid pandemic. – Guardian

Google gives Apple a 36pc cut of advertising revenue from its searches made in its Safari browser, a court has heard. The previously unknown figure was supposed to remain confidential but was revealed on Monday during the antitrust trial against Google, where it stands accused of illegally maintaining its monopoly. – Telegraph

One of the biggest providers of sustainability ratings appears to give higher rankings to companies that generate better stock market returns, raising concerns that there are conflicts of interest at play in the booming industry. Joachim Klement, an investment strategist at Liberum, a stockbroker, said on Monday that there may be “monetary conflicts of interest at play” in the burgeoning but opaque industry of providing environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings. – The Times

The top official at the Office for Budget Responsibility has hit back at critics by insisting that the spending watchdog takes into account all costs and benefits when examining changes to fiscal policy, and that it is unfair to claim it does not. Professor David Miles, a member of the OBR’s budget responsibility committee, said it was fair to query whether the group accurately captured shifts in consumer and business behaviour in response to tax and spending decisions. – The Times

US close

US stocks finished well off their daily lows on Monday but the major equity indices still put in a mixed performance as investors choose to remain cautious ahead of key inflation data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.16%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.08% and the Nasdaq declined 0.22%.

That follows some impressive gains on Wall Street last Friday, which saw the Nasdaq surge 2.05% - its biggest one-day gain since May - the Dow rose 1.2% and the S&P 500 jumped 1.6%.

The consumer price index, due out at 0830 ET on Tuesday, is expected to show that annual inflation slowed to 3.3% in October from 3.7% the month before.

However, core inflation (which excludes volatile items like food and energy) is forecast to remain at September's level of 4.1% – still firmly above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.