Sky invests in drone races, Galliford lifts dividend
London open
The FTSE 100 index is predicted to open 22 points higher on Wednesday morning, after finishing just shy of 6,666 the day before.
Stocks to watch
Sky has invested £1m in the Drone Racing League (DRL), which includes a distribution deal to show the league on the Sports Mix channel from October. Sky Sports will show live events and broadcast content to the UK and Ireland, airing 10 one hour episodes of the league's season, which covers five races.
FTSE 250 homeware retailer Dunelm reported a rise in full-year profit as revenue grew. In the 52 weeks to 2 July, pre-tax profit rose to £128.9m from £121.4m in the 52 weeks to 27 June 2015, on revenue of £880.9m, up 7.1% from the year before.
Galliford Try proposed a bumper final dividend after it reported a record annual profit thanks to strong growth at its housebuilding, public partnerships and construction arms. On revenue up 10% to £2.67bn in the year to 30 June, profit before tax grew 18% to £135.0m, with earnings per share up 17% to 132.5p.
Newspaper round-up
Sir James Dyson, the billionaire inventor, has said there is no reason for businesses in Britain to be uncertain as a result of the EU referendum and that they would be mad to withhold investment on the back of the vote. Speaking as his company, Dyson, unveiled a £250m expansion of its research and development centre in the Cotswolds, the engineer said Britain could now reach trade agreements with countries outside Europe “much more easily and flexibly” and reconsider its approach to immigration from around the world so it can attract more engineers and scientists from India, China and the far east. – Guardian
One of Britain’s largest bond funds has suggested that people would be better off keeping their money in cash, rather than investing in debt, as it warned of the extraordinary impact that central bank policies are having on fixed-income returns. M&G Investments, which manages more than £260 billion for its customers, of which nearly £160 billion is in fixed-income assets, said yesterday that the “traditional approach” to investing should be reappraised in the light of negative interest rates, where depositors pay to save their money. – The Times
Bayer and Monsanto are on the verge of agreeing the largest takeover deal of 2016 to date, after the German company sweetened its offer for the US seed maker to just under $130 a share, people informed about the negotiations said.The deal, valuing Monsanto’s equity at about $57bn and worth about $66bn including debt, is likely to be announced as early as Wednesday morning in New York soon after Bayer’s board meets to sign off on the deal, several people close to the aspirin-to-crop chemicals conglomerate said. – Financial Times
US close
US stocks ended in the red on Tuesday with energy issues under the cosh amid falling oil prices, as investors continued to digest dovish comments by Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.4% lower, the S&P 500 declined 1.5% and the Nasdaq slid 1.1%.
At the same time oil prices slid after the International Energy Agency said the crude market will be oversupplied at least through the six months of 2017. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 3% to $44.90 a barrel and Brent was down 2.4% to $47.17. This weighed on energy stocks, with the likes of Chevron and Exxon both firmly on the back foot.