Barratt profits proliferate, Weir's on the wane
London open
Extending losses from the prior day, the FTSE 100 is forecast to fall by around 14 points on Wednesday morning.
Stocks to watch
Barratt Developments hiked its dividend by a quarter after the housebuilder's profits mushroomed in the first half of the year. The FTSE 100 construction group generated £295m pre-tax profit in the six months to the calendar year end, an increase of 40.3% on revenues that rose 19% to £1.88bn.
Unprecedented market challenges saw revenue and earnings take a tumble at Weir Group in the year to 1 January, yet it still will pay a final dividend of 29p. The FTSE 250 engineer saw revenue slide 21% on a reported basis to £1.92bn, with profit before tax falling 46% to £220m to £259m as operating margin shrank 490 basis points to 13.5%.
Petrofac's annual profits plunged due to delays in getting production up and running at its Laggan-Tormore plant and the costs associated with it. The FTSE 250 company said that for the calendar 2015, it made a net profit of $9m (£6.4m), down from $581m. Not incorporating the losses from the Laggan-Tormore plant, it would have made a net profit of $440m.
Newspaper round-up
Saudi Arabia has warned that there is almost no chance of a cut in oil production by the OPEC cartel to lift prices and avert a bloodbath for the energy industry, dashing hopes for a quick reprieve as the supply glut continues to build. "It's not going to happen," said the country's veteran oil minister Ali Al-Naimi, accusing other major producers of cheating on accords and undermining past efforts to stabilize crude prices. – Telegraph
George Osborne’s pension overhaul could trigger the next major wave of mis-selling claims, according to a report by the public spending watchdog. The National Audit Office has highlighted concerns that freedoms introduced last April, which allowed pensioners to cash in their savings, could lead to widespread exploitation. – Guardian
Luxury carmaker Aston Martin has announced it will open a new factory in south Wales, creating more than 750 jobs. The luxury marque will build its new DBX crossover model at a plant in St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan from 2020 following a worldwide search for a new manufacturing facility. The plant will be Aston Martin’s second factory and would create an estimated 1,000 jobs in the wider supply chain and local businesses, the company said. - Guardian
US close
US stocks closed lower on Tuesday as oil prices plunged and investors digested mixed economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial fell 1.14%, the Nasdaq dropped 1.46% and the S&P 500 edged down 1.26% at 1431 GMT.
Oil prices fizzled from highs in the previous session on doubts that global producers will agree to a freeze in output to address an oversupplied market. Saudi Arabia and Russia have proposed to halt output at January levels but Iran is seen unlikely to agree to the deal after recently being freed of western sanctions that have hurt its crude trade.