Kingfisher chair to step down, PageGroup posts fall in first-quarter profit

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 23 points lower on Monday, having closed up 0.91% on Friday at 7,995.58.

Stocks to watch

Great Portland Estates announced on Monday that British luxury retail brand Represent will open its new 5,000 square foot flagship store at its property at 135/141 Wardour Street in Soho. The FTSE 250 company said the two-floor space, set to open in early 2025, would be Represent’s second global store after its Los Angeles location. It said Represent had committed to a 10-year lease, without divulging any of the deal’s financial details.

B&Q and Screwfix owner Kingfisher has announced that chair Andrew Cosslett will step down after seven years at the helm of the board. Cosslett has decided not to stand for re-election at the company's AGM in June and will be succeeded by Claudia Arney, who has been an independent non-executive director since 2018 and is currently chair of the remuneration committee. Arney is said to bring "a wealth of experience of business transformation and building digital capabilities", having previously served as interim chair of the Premier League and other non-executive roles at Halfords, Ocado and Aviva.

PageGroup reported lower first-quarter gross profit as the economic slowdown continued to hit the jobs market. The recruitment firm on Monday said gross profit for the first three months of the year fell 12.9% to £219.7m on an annual basis, with UK and Asia-Pacific operations down 19.2% and 22% respectively. “Conversion of final interviews to accepted offers is still the most significant challenge, as candidate and client sentiment remains subdued reflecting the general macroeconomic uncertainty in most of our markets,” said chief executive Nicholas Kirk.

Newspaper round-up

A 20-year-old children’s charity that shut down after an error by Barclays led to its account being closed was offered only £250 in compensation by the bank. JusB, which worked with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, initially was offered the sum along with an apology for a mistake that resulted in the charity being cut off from its finances for nearly a month last year. This offer was increased later to £525, which Sir Robert Neill, the charity’s constituency MP, called “trivial” and said “bears no relation to the harm done”. - The Times

Motorists are braced for a rise in fuel costs as the escalating crisis in the Middle East threatens to send oil prices close to $100 a barrel. The RAC warned that petrol prices could hit £1.50 a litre for the first time in five months if Iran’s attack on Israel drives up the price of crude. Oil prices are already trading at six month highs but analysts said they are expected to rise on Monday after Iran sent a swarm of missiles and drones to Israel on Saturday night. - Telegraph

Oil and gas companies will have to pay more to drill on public lands and satisfy stronger requirements to clean up old or abandoned wells, according to a final rule issued on Friday by the Biden administration. The interior department’s rule raises royalty rates for oil drilling by one-third, to 16.67%, in accordance with the sweeping 2002 climate law approved by Congress. - Guardian

Tax havens are making “glacially slow” progress in implementing transparency measures designed to tackle economic crime, according to a new report. UK overseas territories and crown dependencies had been expected to create public registers of beneficial owners of companies by 2023, but Gibraltar is the only jurisdiction to have one that is fully operational and open to the public. Research by the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition and Tax Justice UK campaign groups found that the majority remained “some way off” implementing a public register. - The Times

More than 40 Planet Fitness locations across the country have received bomb threats after a conservative movement against the gym’s trans-inclusive locker room policy went viral online. In the weeks since the backlash against the gym chain started in March, at least 43 locations in Connecticut, Florida, Alabama and other states have received bomb threats, according to progressive media watchdog group Media Matters. - Guardian

US close

Underwhelming quarterly results from the banking sector and escalating tensions in the Middle East sunk US stocks on Friday, with the Dow falling for the fifth straight day.

Reports of an imminent attack on Israel by Iran sent shockwaves through markets, with Israel said to be readying for a strike that could arrive in next 48 hours. The US government also moved warships to defend Israel from a potential attack.

The worries saw investors ditch equities and pile into bonds – the 10-year US Treasury yield was down 6.3 basis points at 4.532% – and drive up the value of the US dollar and gold in a flight to safety.

As such, the Dow finished the session 1.24% lower, with just four stocks putting in gains by the close of play.

That resulted in a weekly loss of 2.45% for the index – its worst weekly performance in 13 months. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 dropped 1.46% and the Nasdaq sunk 1.62%.