United Utilities lifts dividend, retail growth boosts PayPoint
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 25 points higher on Thursday, after closing up 0.4% at 7,514.90 on Wednesday.
Stocks to watch
Water company United Utilities upped its dividend 1.1% after a year where revenue and profit both leaked modestly lower but it remained confident of meeting its long-term targets. Revenue for the year to 31 March slipped to £1.70bn from £1.73bn due to slight accounting changes from a joint venture, while underlying profit before tax of £389m was up £19m on the previous year due to increased financing costs from higher inflation on index-linked debt. The proposal of a final dividend of 25.92p took the total dividend for the year to 38.87p, an annual increase of 1.1%.
Payment systems provider PayPoint posted its preliminary results for the year to 31 March on Thursday, claiming “good growth” in its core retail networks as gross revenue rose 3.6% to £203.4m. The FTSE 250 company said net revenue grew 6.2% to £117.5m, while operating profit improved 1.1% to £53.3m. Retail services net revenue grew to £39.9m - an increase of 31.6% - as the firm also benefited from a profit on the sale of its mobile division of £19.5m.
Newspaper round-up
The TUC has urged the next government to take action to boost pay as it warned that borrowing to top up wages was poised to breach the record levels hit just before the financial crisis of a decade ago. Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, expressed alarm at the steady increase in unsecured debt – which excludes mortgages – and called for a higher minimum wage and an end to the tough pay curbs in the public sector. – Guardian
British car manufacturing went into reverse in April, with production falling at the fastest rate in more than two and a half years. A total of 122,116 cars rolled off UK production lines last month, 18% fewer than in April 2016, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). - Guardian
Online wedding company Prezola has received a multi-million pound investment from the Business Growth Fund as it looks to branch out into mobile app technology. The wedding gift list service, which also allows customers to create customisable wedding websites, has received a £3m backing from the BGF, which invests in small and mid-sized firms in the UK. – Telegraph
A £200m settlement between Royal Bank of Scotland and thousands of aggrieved shareholders has been hit by further delays after it emerged that lawyers were having difficulty tracking down some investors to ask them to agree to the deal. A High Court trial into RBS’s £12bn rights issue at the height of the financial crisis has now been adjourned until June 7 after Jonathan Nash QC, who is acting for the investors, said there had been “logistical” problems contacting some of the claimant shareholders to put a settlement offer to them. – Telegraph
Opec oil ministers will meet in Vienna today amid claims that some members are cheating on production quotas, undermining efforts to drive prices higher by extending a deal to curb output. As officials from the 13 member states gathered for a biannual policy meeting in the Austrian capital, there was mounting tension over suspicions that some countries in the organisation, which pumps a third of the world’s oil, are failing to honour their commitments under an agreement signed with other exporters in November to slash supply by 1.8 million barrels a day. – The Times
The senior independent director at Glencore was rebuked by shareholders yesterday over the commodity group’s unusual board structure and opaque pay arrangements. Fourteen per cent of investors who cast a vote voted against the re-election of Peter Grauer, who is also the chairman of Bloomberg, while 5 per cent vetoed the re-election of Tony Hayward, the ex-BP chief who chairs Glencore. – The Times
US close
Wall Street's main market averages finished in the green on Wednesday, with Treasury yields slipping after the release of the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s May meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.36% at 21,012.41, while the S&P 500 finished 0.25% higher at 2,404.39 and the Nasdaq 100 was firmer by 0.47% at 5,730.30.
In bond markets, the US benchmark 10-year note yield was down after the release of the Fed minutes, to trade at 2.255%, while the two-year yield was at 1.273%, after both traded higher before the release.
Bond yields move inversely to prices.
The minutes suggested the central bank members were in agreement on how the Fed can unwind its $4.5trn balance sheet.
It’s understood the Fed will implement caps on how much it will allow to drop off the balance sheet without reinvestment each month.
There were doubts over how soon such a plan could be implemented, however, with analysts at Rabobank saying: “recent events in Washington DC support our view that the Fed is not going to hike more than twice this year.
"As it is becoming increasingly difficult to make fiscal policy, and Trumpgate is likely to continue to hang over the markets like Damocles’ sword, we do not think that the Fed’s intended third hike will materialise this year.
“Note that this could also delay the Fed’s plan to reduce its reinvestments until next year.”