Whitbread orders new coffee MD, Tesco sells part of Asian investment

London open

On Tuesday the FTSE 100 is predicted to fall 16 points from its slightly lower close at 6,200.12 on the previous day.

Stocks to watch

Hospitality group Whitbread announced the departure of Christopher Rogers on Tuesday, from the posts of managing director of coffee shop chain Costa and executive director of the firm’s board. It also revealed Dominic Paul had been appointed to succeed Rogers at Costa, cruising into the role on 6 June from his Royal Caribbean International, where he had been senior vice president international since November 2013.

Tesco has agreed to sell just over half its stake in South East Asia ecommerce marketplace Lazada to China's giant Alibaba Group for $129m. The supermarket group will sell an 8.6% stake to Alibaba $129m, leaving it with an 8.3% holding and valuing Lazada at roughly $1.5bn.

Construction firm Galliford Try said the cost of its exposure to the Edinburgh schools scandal was “not material to the group”. The company said it had contractual responsibility for four of the 17 schools that have been closed due to defective building work.

Recruitment firm Michael Page said first quarter gross profit grew 3.6% in constant currencies, despite the timing of Easter and the challenging market conditions in several of its larger markets, including Greater China, the UK and Brazil. The company saw particularly good performances in the US, and Continental Europe, which now account for over 40% of the group.

Newspaper round-up

Italy’s strongest banks, insurers and asset managers have agreed to create a €5bn backstop fund to bail out weaker lenders in an effort to calm growing investor concern about the stability of the banking sector of the eurozone’s third-largest economy. The rescue fund, announced by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi after a six-hour meeting of financiers, regulators and ministers in Rome, comes after a plunge in the value of Italian bank shares this year on widening concerns about the effect of €360bn of non-performing loans on Italy’s financial stability. – Financial Times

Financial services hiring crashed last months as banks stopped spending as weaker economic growth, a lack of big corporate deals, the impending referendum on Britain’s EU membership and the Brussels terrorist attacks all shook confidence, according to recruiter Morgan McKinley. The number of available jobs in the industry dived by 21pc to 7,215 in March, down from 9,135 a year earlier. – Telegraph

The highly anticipated meeting of the world’s largest oil producing nations in Doha this weekend is unlikely to offer a “bullish surprise” for the embattled oil market, and may cause prices to reverse from recent gains, Goldman Sachs has warned. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) are due to meet with non-Opec producers to thrash out a deal to limit oil production in a bid to ease the oversupply which has crippled prices for almost two years. – Telegraph

Fans of craft beer could soon face higher bar bills as small, independent brewers face a potentially serious shortage of hops. The hot and dry weather last summer blighted the European hop harvest, and strong demand for craft beers, many of which use a large amount of hops, is putting small brewers’ profit margins under pressure and forcing them to raise prices. – Guardian

BHP Billiton is facing fresh criticism for its part in Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, amid claims that the firm it hired to investigate the incident suffers from a conflict of interest. The Anglo-Australian miner and its Brazilian partner, Vale, ordered an American law firm to conduct the independent investigation into why a dam had burst at their Samarco iron-ore mine in November, sending a torrent of mud and waste water through nearby villages and killing 19 people. – The Times

US close

US stocks gave up gains on Monday to close lower, with investors said to be looking ahead to earnings season.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.12% at 17,556.421, the S&P 500 finished down 0.27% at 2,041.99, and the Nasdaq Compositewas off 0.36% at 4,833.40.

According to a note from S&P Global Market Intelligence, aggregate first-quarter S&P 500 earnings for the new season were estimated at $26.17 - a decline of more than 8% year-on-year, and the third quarterly decline in a row.