Wizz Air passenger numbers rise in March, Hilton Foods profits grow

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 25 points lower on Wednesday, having closed down 0.22% on Tuesday at 7,935.09.

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Wizz Air said in an update on Wednesday that in March it carried 4,778,980 passengers, marking a 12% year-on-year increase, with a 90.8% load factor, influenced by one-way traffic during the Easter period. The FTSE 250 low-cost airline resumed flights to Tel Aviv from six bases during the period, announced special flights for the UEFA European Football Championship, celebrated International Women's Day with all-female crews, and reported carbon dioxide emissions of 51.5 grams per passenger-kilometre for March, slightly higher than the prior year.

Meat, seafood and meat alternatives group Hilton Foods saw profits rise by a fifth in 2023 despite modest top-line growth. helped by the turnaround in its seafood business. Adjusted pre-tax profit came in at £66m, up 20.3% at constant currencies, with adjusted operating margins improving to 2.4% from 1.8%. Volumes increased by just 0.7% to 517,347 tonnes, while revenues rose 5.7% to £3.99bn. The recovery in seafood is being delivered "ahead of plan", Hilton said, returning to full-year operating profitability.

Newspaper round-up

A bond issued by Thames Water’s parent company has fallen to record lows as the embattled company scrambles to secure its future, and the government signalled it is “ready to step in if necessary”. The £400m bond, issued by the water supplier’s parent company, Kemble, has slumped to only 14.4p after shareholders indicated that they were unwilling to inject further funds into the heavily indebted utility company. – Guardian

Adverts featuring the actor Dominic West as a sneering bank manager will be pulled from TV in their current form after the advertising watchdog ruled they were misleading because they wrongly suggest that the building society had not closed branches. The Advertising Standards Authority (Asa) received 281 complaints, including one from rival lender Santander, about the advert, which ran in October and November. The Nationwide campaign took a swipe at high street banks that have been closing branches. – Guardian

Taxpayers are to pay hundreds of millions of pounds to cover the cost of dismantling some of Shell’s dirtiest oil rigs in the North Sea. It comes after the energy giant was ordered to strip thousands of tonnes of waste from decommissioned oil platforms despite the company’s attempts to keep them in place. Shell has spent the past decade lobbying for an exemption from removing toxic sludge from three platforms located in its Brent oil and gas field over claims it could risk workers’ lives and hurt the taxpayer. – Telegraph

The value of second-hand electric cars has tumbled since the start of the year as Chinese manufacturers flood Britain with cheap new models. The average price of the 20 most popular used electric and hybrid vehicles fell 12pc in the three months to March compared with a year ago, according to research by the AA. – Telegraph

Microsoft will sell Teams, its online meeting service, separately from its Office software suite after coming under scrutiny from competition regulators. The technology group separated Teams and Office six months ago in Europe in an attempt to avoid a fine from the European Commission and now it will take the same approach worldwide. – The Times

US close

Wall Street closed in the red on the first trading day of the second quarter on Tuesday, as some robust economic data sparked speculation about potential delays in anticipated Federal Reserve rate cuts.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1% to 39,170.24 points, while the S&P 500 followed suit with a 0.72% drop to end the day at 5,205.81 points.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also saw a decline, closing down 0.95% at 16,240.45 points.

In currency markets, the dollar was stable against sterling and the yen at 79.51p and JPY 151.56, while it decreased 0.01% on the euro to change hands at 92.84 euro cents.

In economic news, the US saw little change in the number of job openings in February, suggesting a stagnant job market. According to the Department of Labor, the seasonally-adjusted data showed a marginal 0.1% increase in job openings, bringing the total to 8.756 million.