Wetherspoons grows full-year earnings, Mediclinic progresses Al Noor Hospitals integration

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 9 points lower on Friday, after closing up 0.18% at 6,858.70 on Thursday.

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Pub operator JD Wetherspoon posted its preliminary results for the year to 24 July on Friday, with revenue rising 5.4% to £1.595bn, and like-for-like sales improving 3.4% over the prior year. The FTSE 100 firm’s profit before tax was up 3.6% at £77.8m, with operating profit dropping 2.5% to £109.7m and earnings per share growing 2.8% to 48.3p. Its board maintained the full-year dividend at 12p.

Private healthcare company Mediclinic said “significant progress” was made integrating the Al Noor Hospitals business, but expectations for its Abu Dhabi operations will be lower than anticipated. The FTSE 100 company said whilst expectations in the medium term remain unchanged, and business integration continues, Mediclinic Middle East is expected, for the year ending 31 March 2017, low to mid-single digit revenue growth and underlying EBITDA margins of mid to high teens with performance being weighted to the second half of the year.

Newspaper round-up

It is often argued that Germany was the great winner from the launch of the euro. The argument is simple: the single currency is relatively weak, while the deutschmark was very strong. So by joining the euro, Germany locked in a much lower exchange rate, making it permanently more competitive and helping it export a lot more. Had Germany retained the mark, it could well have ended up as a safe haven refuge currency, rocketing like the Swiss franc and choking German manufacturers. – Telegraph

Britain's roads and railways are in line for a multi-billion pound boost to help cushion the impact of the Brexit vote, the Chancellor has signalled. Philip Hammond said any fiscal stimulus delivered by the Government would provide a “quick” boost to the economy, be “well designed” and “limited in duration”. - Telegraph

Philip Hammond has pledged to maintain free movement for top bankers after Britain leaves the EU, as he attempts to reassure the City that the financial services industry will be protected during Brexit negotiations. The chancellor, responding to pressure from Japan and leading banks, promised to maintain a flow of European talent to UK-based financial services companies, regardless of new rules to curb EU migration. – Financial Times

Philip Hammond will present his first budget statement as chancellor of the exchequer on 23 November, setting out how the government will use tax and spending plans to shore up the UK economy after the vote to leave the EU. Appearing before a House of Lords committee, Hammond hinted that he would use the autumn statement to create headroom for the government to step in with support for the economy as households and businesses absorb the shock of the referendum result. – Guardian

Large companies should publish their tax returns and whistleblowers who expose financial wrongdoing must have protection under the law, a Labour party-commissioned report into reforming tax collection has proposed. Responding to growing concern about repeated failures by HM Revenue and Customs to tackle avoidance by multinationals and wealthy individuals, the shadow chancellor published proposals on Thursday for overhauling the tax agency. - Guardian

A contentious decision to approve the construction of an open-cast coalmine at Druridge Bay in Northumberland has been called in by Sajid Javid because of fears about its impact on climate change. Local planning authorities gave their backing to the project at Highthorn, 30 miles north of Newcastle, in July. Officials said that the secretary for communities and local government wished to examine “the extent to which the proposed development is consistent with government policies for meeting the challenge of climate change”. – The Times

US close

US stocks finished in the red Thursday as the European Central Bank disappointed the market, by saying it hadn’t discussed further quantitative easing at this month’s policy meeting.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was last down 0.25% to 18,479.91 points, the S&P 500 dropped 0.22% to 2,181.30 points and the Nasdaq 100 declined 0.58% to 4,804.00 points.

At the same time oil prices gained as data from the Energy Information Administration showed weekly crude inventories fell 14.5m barrels to 511.4m barrels last week.

Earlier, China data showed crude oil imports rose to their highest level of the year in August. Data from the American Petroleum Institute fuelled the rally after revealing a 2.1 million-barrel drop in inventories.