Burberry lifts full-year guidance, Berkeley Group trading remains 'robust'

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 28 points lower on Friday, having closed up 0.17% on Thursday at 6,736.96.

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Luxury goods brand Burberry on Friday lifted full-year guidance after reporting a “strong rebound” in trading since December. In an unscheduled trading update, Burberry said fourth quarter comparable retail sales were now expected to be 28% - 32% higher year on year. Group revenue was forecast to fall by 10% - 11% and adjusted operating margin in a range of 15.5% - 16.5%.

Berkeley Group said it was on track to report annual pretax profit similar to the £504m achieved the year before based on "robust" trading in the four months to the end of February. Forward sales are expected to be more than £1.7bn at the end of the year on 30 April putting the housebuilder in a strong position to start the next financial year. Berkeley said it expected a similar level of profitability next year, underpinning its commitment to return £280m to shareholders each year.

Bodycote’s revenues fell 16.9% in 2020 to £598m, it said on Friday, as its organic revenues declined 20%. The FTSE 250 coatings and surfaces company said headline operating profit for the year was down 44% at £75.2m, while its EBITDA margin remained “resilient” at 26.4%, down from 29.2% in 2019. Its board proposed a final dividend of 13.4p per share, taking the total distribution for the year to 19.4p, up marginally from the 19.3p total in 2019.

Newspaper round-up

Football Index, the self-styled “football stock market”, appeared to be heading into administration on Thursday evening, five days after a massive crash on its market that left its customers with tens of millions of pounds trapped in its platform. If the business collapses, it will be the biggest failure of any British betting company, possibly leaving individual customers facing potential losses of £200,000 or more. A statement posted on the Football Index website on Thursday evening said that “after a difficult and challenging week” for its users, a decision had been taken “to suspend the platform”. - Guardian

The multimillionaire hedge fund manager Crispin Odey has been found not guilty of an “octopus”-like assault against a junior female banker at his London home. The 62-year-old father-of-three was accused of lunging at the woman after inviting her to his house in Chelsea following a work meeting in 1998, while his pregnant wife was away. Prosecutors alleged that Odey had showered and put on a robe before putting his hand down her shirt and up her skirt during the incident. - Guardian

Royal Mail is to launch Sunday parcel deliveries nationwide for the first time in its 500-year history in a bid to take on Amazon. Parcels will be delivered across the country seven days a week from next month as the postal service responds to a surge in online shopping during the pandemic. The Sunday parcels service will be made available to retailers so that customers can specifically request a delivery on the last day of the week. - Telegraph

Barclays has racked up a £33m legal bill fending off legal action by financier Amanda Staveley in one of the most high-profile court cases to come out of the financial crisis. The lender's fees were revealed in a High Court hearing over who should pay costs, after Barclays beat back a £600m lawsuit launched by Ms Staveley over a 2008 rescue deal. Ms Staveley's side spent £20m on fees. - Telegraph

Virgin Active’s British business will get an extra £45 million in funding from the fitness chain’s shareholders as part of a restructuring, Brait, the investment company that is its majority owner, said yesterday. Virgin Active Europe has been hit badly by the pandemic, with government-imposed shutdowns forcing the temporary closure of gyms in all the countries in which it operates. The company took steps to preserve cash, such as rent reductions in Italy, Australia, Thailand, Singapore and to a lesser extent the UK. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks finished in positive territory on Thursday, making for another all-time high for the Dow following its stellar performance in the previous session.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.58% at 32,485.59, the S&P 500 added 1.04% to 3,939.34, and the Nasdaq Composite was 2.52% firmer at 13,398.67.

The Dow Jones Industrials closed 188.57 points higher on Thursday, extending Wednesday’s record setting rally.

Like the prior session, Thursday's gains were at least partially fuelled by news that the House of Representatives had passed Joe Biden's $1.9trn stimulus package, with the President now preparing to sign it into law by 14 March.

Also in focus was the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which, while inching forward slightly to around 1.53%, had seemingly distanced itself enough from recent highs to temporarily halt a rotation away from tech and growth stocks and into more cyclical sectors.