Wolseley facing challenges, Halfords inches forward

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to fall at least seven points on Wednesday morning, extending the losses that left the previous day close at 6,230.79.

Stocks to watch

Favourable currency movements helped third quarter results at Wolseley with revenue up 5.9% at constant exchange rates to £3.6bn and trading profit up 12.2% to £230m. But the heating and plumbing distributor warned the UK heating market continued to be challenging and it was continuing to take actions to protect profitability, while growth in the US slowed as weaker industrial markets outweighed solid commercial and residential markets. Even in the Nordics, after an encouraging first half, construction markets were more challenging in the third quarter.

Halfords inched profits 0.5% forward to £81.5m before tax and non-recurring items for the year to 1 April as new chief executive Jill McDonald claimed to be making progress with her Moving Up A Gear strategy. This was very slightly above the consensus of analyst forecasts, which pointed to £80.5m. Earnings per share rose 1.5% to 33.2p and the board hiked the dividend 3% to 17p.

Real estate investment trust LondonMetric reported a 19% increase in recurring profits, with EPRA earnings for the year to 31 March hitting £48.5m, compared with £40.9m a year ago. The FTSE 250 company’s reported profit almost halved to £82.7m from £159.5m but EPRA earnings per share were 7.8p, compared with 6.6p, and its EPRA net asset value per share crept up to 147.7p from 140.6p.

Newspaper round-up

India’s Tata Steel has completed the sale of part of its European steel business, even as it remains silent on progress towards finding a buyer for the bulk of the UK operation. The European long products business — mostly consisting of UK operations including a steelworks in Scunthorpe and two mills on Teesside, as well as a mill in France — has been sold to Greybull Capital, an investment company that specialises in turning round struggling companies. – Financial Times

Dominic Chappell, the owner of BHS at the time it fell into administration, has blamed former owner Sir Philip Green for the retail chain’s demise. Chappell said Green had failed to deliver on a pledge to ensure the backing of credit insurers and had not left sufficient cash in the business. – Guardian

The former boss of Lloyds Banking Group has been accused of keeping silent on rate-rigging at the state-backed bank in a court claim that raises fresh questions about the City watchdog’s investigation into market abuse. Eric Daniels, chief executive of Lloyds until 2011, and his Mike Fairey, his deputy at the time, took part in a meeting in April 2008 at which manipulation of the interbank Libor lending rate was allegedly discussed, according a lawsuit brought against the bank by a care home operator. – The Times

US close

US stocks finished mostly lower on Tuesday after mixed economic data and a drop in oil prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.48% and the S&P 500 0.10% but the Nasdaq rose 0.29%.

Oil prices were in the red as the production of Canadian oil resumed and investors looked ahead to this Thursday’s meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.