Paragon lending volumes down in first quarter, Evraz steel production rises

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The FTSE 100 is expected to open 71 points lower on Friday, having closed down 0.62% on Thursday at 6,526.15.

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Specialist lender Paragon Bank reported a fall in first quarter lending volumes as Covid-19 lockdowns stalled house sales, but said it expected a pickup as buyers rushed to complete purchases ahead of the end of the stamp duty holiday in March. The bank on Fridays said buy-to-let volume fell £110.8m to £298.7m year on year, largely reflecting lagged impacts of the first lockdown and “market wide challenges facing the execution of housing transactions”.

Evraz's steel production rose 7.4% in the fourth quarter as its Russian plant increased activity after repairs and volumes improved in North America. Total steel production rose to 3.467m tonnes in the three months to the end of December from 3.227m tonnes in the third quarter. Sales of steel products rose 12% to 3.41m tonnes from the quarter before as sales of semi-finished products jumped 30.4%.

Airtel Africa reported double-digit growth for its first three quarters of the year on Friday, with reported revenue in the nine months ended 31 December ahead 13.8% at $2.87bn (£2.09bn). The FTSE 250 company said third quarter reported revenue growth was 19.5%, while underlying EBITDA for the nine months was up 22.5% at constant currency to $1.3bn. Its operating profit increased 21.8% to $800m in reported currency, and by 29.9% in constant currency.

Newspaper round-up

Britain’s economy is suffering the most damage since the first wave of Covid-19 as persistently high infection rates and renewed lockdown measures delay the economic recovery from the pandemic, according to a Guardian analysis. Almost a year on since the pandemic spread to Europe, focus is shifting towards how quickly coronavirus vaccines can be deployed, with the UK, for now, among countries leading the pack. Economists said this could increase the likelihood of the British economy outperforming other countries’ later this spring, depending on when lockdown restrictions are lifted. - Guardian

The leaders of Britain’s five largest business groups have warned the government that firms face “substantial difficulties” at UK ports since Brexit, with the prospect of a “significant loss of business” if the situation is allowed to continue. Following a round table meeting on Thursday evening with Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, a letter was issued by the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce, the manufacturers’ group Make UK, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Institute of Directors. - Guardian

Peter Cruddas, the boss of CMC Markets who was once dubbed the City's richest person, has warned that the Reddit-driven trading frenzy against shorted stocks is the new normal as traders fear the chaos could be "career threatening". Mr Cruddas, the former Conservative Party co-treasurer, said that the Redditors' war with Wall Street "is just the beginning of retail investor power in the financial markets", adding: "I expect it to be the norm in the future." - Telegraph

Wework is in talks to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company and is also exploring raising funds from private investors a little over a year after its failed stock market flotation. The office-sharing start-up is in talks with a company affiliated with Bow Capital Management and a deal could value Wework at nearly $10 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. - The Times

Four senior executives at SoftBank have accumulated paper profits worth hundreds of millions of dollars through an unusual incentive scheme that gave them loans to buy large amounts of the Japanese conglomerate’s shares. By the end of March last year Marcelo Claure, chief operating officer, and Rajeev Misra, head of the SoftBank Vision Fund, had each used about $250 million of loans from Softbank to buy the company’s stock, according to details of the scheme in SoftBank's annual report. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks finished in positive territory on Thursday, following a heavy sell-off in the previous session and some better than expected jobless claims numbers.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.99% at 30,603.36, as the S&P 500 added 0.98% to 3,787.38 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.5% to 13,337.16.

The Dow closed 300.19 points higher on Thursday, cutting into losses recorded in the previous session - its worst since October.

Earlier in the session, comments from the Federal Reserve were in focus, with the central bank making it clear it was content on maintaining existing monetary policy.

However, sentiment was still taking a hit even though the central bank vowed to continue supporting the economy.