Weekly review

The FTSE 100 ended the week down 5.33%, or 412.95 points, closing at 7,355.40 on Friday.

Equity view

Bodycote reported a jump in full-year profit and revenue on Friday as it said that permanent price increases had fully recovered labour and general cost inflation. In the year to the end of December 2022, headline operating profit rose 19% to £112.2m, on revenues of £743.6m, up 20.8% on the previous year.

Private equity firm Apollo has been given an extension on whether it will formally bid for Wood Group after three prior approaches were rebuffed. Wood on Friday said it had asked the UK’s Takeover Panel to extend the date to April 19 from the current date of March 22.

Solar panels developer Verditek has struck a new three-year agreement with Swedish building products group Lindab Profil. Verditek highlighted that the agreement had no minimum purchasing obligations for Lindab and said there was no guarantee that it would place any orders.

Technical products and services specialist Diploma announced the successful pricing of a non-pre-emptive placing of new shares on Friday, raising more than £235m to help fund its acquisition pipeline. The FTSE 250 company said it placed 9,297,005 new shares with institutional investors at a price of 2,525p each.

Real estate agent Savills said it expected a tough first half of the current year as it reported a fall in annual profits. The company on Thursday said pre-tax profit for the year to December 31 fell 16% to £154m, slightly better than expected. Revenue rose 7% to £2.3bn.

Gold miner Centamin said full-year profits rose 11% to $171m driven by a strong rise in production. Revenue for 2022 rose 8% to $788m. The company maintained its gold production guidance range of 450,000 - 480,000 ounces a year weighted towards the second half.

Rentokil posted a jump in full-year profit on Thursday and hiked its dividend, underpinned by recent acquisitions. In its 2022 preliminary results, the company said adjusted pre-tax profit rose 27.7% to £532m, with statutory revenue 25.6% higher at £3.7bn. Rentokil pointed to the benefit of M&A, including the acquisition of US extermination company Terminix, and strong organic revenue growth of 6.6%, "driven by resilient demand and effective price progression".

Electricals retailer Currys has replaced the chief executive of its troubled Nordics division and warned that group profits will be at the lower end of expectations. Fredrik Tønnesen has been appointed Nordics CEO, replacing Erik Sønsterud, who is stepping down with immediate effect, the company said on Thursday.

Insurer Prudential reported a better-than-expected rise in annual profit on the back of new insurance sales and said China’s relaxation of Covid restrictions had also provided a boost. The Asia-focused company saw adjusted operating profit rise 8% in 2022 to $3.38bn, beating a forecast of around $3.34bn from a company-compiled forecast.

Luxury fashion brand Burberry has announced the appointment of Kate Ferry as chief financial officer and executive director. Ferry, who succeeds Julie Brown, will join the company by early September at the latest. She will have responsibility for finance and business services functions and will become a member of the board and Executive Committee, reporting to chief executive Jonathan Akeroyd.

Online rail ticket seller Trainline said revenues surged 74% in its last fiscal year, driven by soaring international ticket sales as European routes opened up to competition, offsetting a UK performance hit by rail strikes.Group net ticket sales rose 72% to £4.3bn in the 12 months to February 28, with those at Trainline’s International Consumer unit more than doubling to £915m.

Bloomsbury Publishing lifted its full-year profit and revenue outlook on Wednesday as it cited strong demand.In an update for the year to 28 February 2023, the company said revenue was expected to be "comfortably ahead" and profit "materially ahead" of expectations.

Sainsbury's on Tuesday said it was paying £430.9m to take full ownership of the Highbury and Dragon store investment vehicles from Supermarket Income REIT. Sainsbury's has held a 49% stake in the two vehicles since the joint venture was created in 2000. It contains the freeholds of 26 stores leased to the UK supermarket chain.

Tech venture capital investor Molten Ventures said it expected no impact from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, after the lender’s UK arm was rescued by HSBC. The company confirmed SVB UK provided 40% of Molten’s current undrawn credit of up to £60m and a £90m term loan.

Interdealer broker TP ICAP lifted its dividend on Tuesday as it reported a jump in full-year profit, boosted by increased market volatility. In the year to the end of December 2022, adjusted pre-tax profit rose to £226m from £177m the year before, on revenues of £2.1bn, up from £1.9bn. The total dividend per share was hiked to 12.4p from 9.5p.

Industrial and electronics products distributor RS Group has tapped former Ultra Electronics boss Simon Pryce to take over as chief executive. RS Group said on Tuesday that Pryce will commence the role on 3 April, succeeding acting CEO David Egan - who will continue to serve as the company's chief financial officer.

IP Group said it had no relationship with the failed US tech investors Silicon Valley Bank or its UK arm. IP, which invests in science and innovation companies, said it had "no direct deposits, credit facilities or other relationships with the collapsed lender.

Online greeting card and gift retailer Moonpig said on Monday that it has no material exposure to the UK arm of failed US bank Silicon Valley Bank. Moonpig said it has no cash on deposit with SVB UK and does not hold a bank account with them.

Media group Future said on Monday that it has no material exposure to the UK arm of failed US bank Silicon Valley Bank. The company said its exposure to SVB UK was immaterial to the group’s liquidity. As at 10 March, cash deposits with SVB accounted for less than 3% of its cash on hand, equivalent to less than £1m, it said.

Online marketplace operator Auction Technology Group on Monday said it had limited exposure to collapsed Silicon Valley Bank. The company, which runs seven online platforms connecting 2,300 auction houses with potential bidders, said SVB represented about one-sixth of the almost $200m in loan facilities it has with a syndicate of six banks.

Economic news

The UK will be the only industrialised country other than Russia to see its economy shrink this year, according to projections from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD expects the UK economy to shrink by 0.2% this year. This is better than its previous forecast for a 0.4% contraction but still leaves the UK at the bottom of the G7 league table.

Britons face a decade of lower living standards and poorer public services while paying higher taxes, leading think tanks warned on Thursday after the government’s spring Budget. Taxes as a share of national income are expected to hit 37.7% by 2027, the highest in 70 years, while the freezing of tax-free thresholds will pull in an extra £30bn in revenue in that time, according to the Resolution Foundation and Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Britain's economy is forecast to avoid a recession in 2023, but living standards are still set to record their biggest two-year fall in seven decades, while the tax burden also increases for millions of people, the Office for Budgetary Responsibility said on Wednesday. Real household disposable income (RHDI) per person – a measure of real living standards – is expected to fall by a cumulative 5.7% over this financial year and 2023-24, the OBR said in its fiscal outlook published alongside the spring Budget delivered by the government.

The UK will avoid a technical recession this year with inflation falling below 3%, the chancellor of the exchequer confirmed on Wednesday, as he unveiled a ‘budget for growth’. In his first March budget since becoming chancellor last autumn, Jeremy Hunt said the British economy was "proving the doubters wrong", and that inflation had now peaked.

UK Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt said he was abolishing the lifetime pensions allowance. The allowance, currently at just more than £1m, is the maximum someone can invest in a pension before incurring taxes.

The UK government has bowed to pressure from campaigners and u-turned on plans to axe support for household energy bills as another price rise in April threatened to put some families into poverty. Average annual bills will now stay at £2,500 pounds instead of £3000 until the end of June under a price cap system, the Treasury said in a statement on Wednesday. Falling wholesale prices have given the government some room to manoeuvre and mean support will be pulled at the end of June.

The merger between Asda and the Co-op’s petrol stations and attached grocery stores could lead to higher prices for motorists and shoppers, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on Tuesday. In an investigation, the competition regulator said it found that the acquisition of 132 petrol forecourt sites by Asda raised competition concerns in 13 locations across the UK, where the merging businesses currently competed for customers.

The UK unemployment rate was steady in the three months to January, while wage growth slowed for the first time in more than a year, according to data released on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics. The rate was stable on the quarter at 3.7%, versus economists' expectations for a slight uptick to 3.8%.

Retail experts MRI Springboard revealed on Monday that wild weather last week had heavily impacted high street retailers, leading to a drop in weekly footfall. Week-on-week footfall dropped by 10.1% on UK high streets as extreme weather exposed shoppers to the elements and dealt a blow to retailers. Annual high street footfall also sunk, down 5.3% when compared to 2022.

Gilt yields slid on Monday, with investors rushing to safety as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank continued to rattle markets. At 1110 GMT, the 10-year yield on gilts was down 13 basis points at 3.50%, while the 2-year yield on gilts was 16 basis points lower at 3.45%, as investors scaled back Bank of England and Federal Reserve rate hike expectations in the wake of the SVB drama.

International events

Americans grew more pessimistic in early March amid persistently high prices, the results of a closely followed survey revealed. Yet gauges of inflation expectations broke out of their recent ranges to the downside.

US industrial output flatlined last month with weakness centred in the mining sector. According to the US Department of Commerce, industrial production was unchanged in February in month-on-month terms (consensus: 0.2%).

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, announced on Friday that it will be cutting the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for all banks, except those with a 5% ratio, by 25-basis points from 27 March. The move came as an effort to bolster liquidity in the banking sector, and was the first RRR cut of the year.

Annual inflation in the eurozone eased in February but core inflation continued to rise, according to data released on Friday by Eurostat. Inflation nudged down to 8.5% from 8.6% in January, in line with the initial estimate and consensus expectations.

Rate-setters in Frankfurt went ahead and raised short-term interest rates by 50 basis points despite recent heightened stress in the banking sector on either side of the Atlantic. Some analysts had argued that not following through with its most recent guidance might be interpreted as an admission of serious concern around lenders.

Tightness in the US jobs market showed no signs of easing, data covering the previous week showed. According to the US Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms, initial unemployment claims fell by 20,000 over the week ending on 11 March to reach 192,000.

Homebuilding activity in the States perked up last month, but the details of the data were a bit less impressive. According to the US Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms, housing starts rose by 9.8% month-on-month in February to reach an annual rate of 1.45m (consensus: 1.31m).

An anticipated rebound in manufacturing activity in the US mid-Atlantic region failed to materialise in March, the results of a closely followed survey revealed. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's factory sector index edged up from a reading of -24.3 for February to -23.2 in March.

The National Association of Housebuilders/Wells Fargo housing market index increased for a third month in a row. The index rose to 44 in March, the highest reading since September 2022 and beating market forecasts for a reading of 40.

Wholesale inflation in the US slipped unexpectedly last month as food and services prices fell again. According to the US Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms, total final demand prices drifted lower at a month-on-month pace of 0.1% in February. Economists had forecast a rise of 0.4%.

Reporting by Sharecast.com staff and contributors.