Severn Trent sees promise, Kingfisher makes solid start

London open

The FTSE 100 was being called to open 29 points lower on Tuesday, extending its losses from the start of the week.

Stocks to watch

Water utility Severn Trent said annual results were "promising", though group turnover fell 0.8% year-on-year to £1.79bn as a result of a regulated price decrease. Underlying profit before interest and tax was down 3.2% in the 12 months to 31 March, to £523m and the board declared a final dividend of 48.4p to take the full-year dividend to 80.66p.

DIY retailer Kingfisher put together a solid start to the year, with 6.2% like-for-like growth in B&Q and Screwfix stores in the UK and Ireland contributing to 3.6% group growth. Sales in Poland were also solid and France continued to show evidence of slow recovering, while progress in chief executive Véronique Laury's ambitious five-year plan saw the new store IT system, a looming supply chain launch and 10 B&Q stores.

Repair and insurance company HomeServe posted a rise in profit for the year to the end of March as revenue and customer numbers grew. Adjusted pre-tax profit rose 9% from 2015 to £93m on revenue of £633.2m, up from £584.2m. Meanwhile, the total number of customers increased 11% to 7m.

IT infrastructure group Softcat said revenue growth in the quarter to 30 April was slightly ahead of that seen in the first half, with gross profit and operating profit also growing faster than in the first six months. In addition the company also received a higher than anticipated incremental benefit from previously highlighted and now fully realised procurement savings.

Newspaper round-up

A US appeals court has reinstated a civil lawsuit accusing 16 major banks of conspiring to manipulate the Libor benchmark interest rate. The ruling, which overturns a 2013 decision, could bankrupt the institutions, the judges warned. A lower court judge erred in dismissing the antitrust portion of private litigation against Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, UBS and others on the ground that the investors failed to allege harm to competition, according to the US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan. - The Guardian

Scores of fracking projects across England were given a boost last night as councillors in Yorkshire approved the first scheme in five years. Third Energy is expected to become the first British company to frack legally since 2011 after it won the right to press ahead with extracting shale gas near the North York Moors national park despite protests from local residents and campaigners. - The Times

China's finance ministry will issue Rmb3bn ($458m) of bonds in London's offshore renminbi market, a test of foreign investors' appetite for Chinese assets amid concerns about the currency's depreciation and capital flight. The UK government has aggressively courted renminbi business for the City of London as part of a broad push to promote greater economic ties with the world’s largest economy in terms of purchasing power. - Financial Times

US close

US markets closed lower on Monday, with investors starting to play wait-and-see with the Federal Reserve as several rate-setters made public their thoughts as to when the next interest rate hike may come.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.05% to finish at 17,492.93, the S&P 500 was 0.21% down at 2,048.04, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.08% to end at 4,765.78.

On the S&P, utilities closed almost 1% lower to lead the declining sectors, while materials finished more than 1% higher, led by CF Industries and Monsanto which both gained more than 4%.