Severn Trent announces chunky dividend, underlying profit up marginally at Paragon
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open one point lower on Tuesday, after closing up 0.34% at 7,496.34 on Monday.
Stocks to watch
Heathcare investor Syncona said its portfolio company Blue Earth Diagnostics had received confirmation of approval of its Axumin radioactive diagnostic agent to detect prostrate cancer by the European Commission.
Severn Trent declared another chunky dividend and said it planned an enhanced payout next time after spying further efficiencies it can make for the year ahead. In the year to end-March, the water supplier increased turnover 3.7% to £1.8bn, underlying profit before interest and tax by 4.3% to £525m and underlying earnings per share by 19.9% to 122.4p. It proposed a final dividend of 48.90p that takes the annual payout to 81.50p, up 1% on the previous year.
Specialist lender and banking group, the Paragon Group of Companies, announced its half year results for the six months to 31 March on Tuesday, with underlying profit increasing 1.0% to £70.1m, as the company absorbed £5.5m of Tier 2 bond costs. The FTSE 250 firm made a statutory profit before tax of £69.4m, which was down 0.1% year-on-year.
Newspaper round-up
At least 19 people have been killed and 50 injured in what is being investigated as a suspected suicide bombing of a crowded pop concert in Manchester, the most deadly attack in Britain in a decade. - Guardian
The euro reached a six-month high yesterday after Angela Merkel said that the “too weak” currency was behind her country’s massive trade surplus. The German chancellor was speaking at a secondary school in Berlin when she claimed that huge export earnings were being propelled by the euro’s exchange rate and the oil price. - The Times
The competition watchdog has said it will investigate the £11 billion merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management, which is set to create one of the world’s largest listed fund management companies. The Competition and Markets Authority said yesterday that it had begun an early stage investigation of the deal to assess whether the combination of the two fund management groups would have an impact on lessening industry competition. - The Times
US close
Commodity-related issues buoyed the main Wall Street averages on Monday as the US dollar continued to trade on the backfoot.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.43% at 20,894.82, while the S&P 500 added 0.52% to 2,394.02 and the Nasdaq 100 finished 0.85% firmer at 5,699.40.
Indications at the weekend that OPEC might be moving closer to extending a deal to cut its combined output put a bid into oilfield services names.
The White House was scheduled to make its budget request the next day.
According to the Washington Post, it was likely to include large cuts to Medicaid and changes to programmes meant to fight against poverty.
Oanda senior analyst Craig Erlam said: "US President Donald Trump’s global tour will be of interest to traders although we do appear to be seeing a more reserved version of himself so far, which will come as a relief to many."