Berkeley increased FY guidance, TUI lowers winter capacity plans

Stocks to watch

Housebuilder Berkeley increased its guidance for the current year and beyond as it reported a 26% increase in first-half profits, fuelled by its investment in London and surrounding areas.

Pretax profit for the six months to the end of October rose to £290.7m from £230.8m a year earlier as revenue increased 36.3% to £1.22bn. As a result, the FTSE 100-listed group raised its guidance for the year by 5% from an earlier forecast of profit being little changed at about £518.0m.

Travel company TUI said lowered winter capacity plans due to the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant as it reported its first quarterly profit since the start of the pandemic.

The company said on Wednesday that capacity would "likely" be modified towards the lower end of winter plans of between 60% - 80%. Core earnings for the final quarter came in at €160.0m.

Miniature wargames manufacturer Games Workshop said on Wednesday that pre-tax profits had slipped in the six months ended 28 November despite seeing sales moderately improve.

Games Workshop now anticipates interim sales to be no less than £190.0m, up from £186.8m at the same time a year ago as a result of growth in both its retail and trade channels, while pre-tax profits were pegged to be approximately £86.0m, down from £91.6m.

Newspaper round-up

Zopa is to exit the peer-to-peer lending market that it pioneered, in the latest sign of the decline of the once-promising industry. Jaidev Janardana, chief executive, said that it would close its peer-to-peer book in January after concluding it was no longer "commercially viable". - The Times

Trading in shares of embattled Chinese developer Kaisa Group Holdings have been suspended on the Hong Kong stock exchange, prompting fresh nerves about the financial stability of the country’s massive property sector. The suspension on Wednesday comes after Kaisa was reportedly unlikely to meet a dollar bond repayment of $400.0m by the deadline of Tuesday night in the US, Reuters said, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter. - Guardian

Volkswagen is still considering a stock market listing of its luxury sports car brand Porsche, according to reports, as it looks to raise capital for a costly shift towards electric vehicles. Estimates for what Porsche could be worth as a standalone company range between €45.0bn and €90.0bn. - Guardian

British financial services exports to the US outstripped those to the European Union in 2020 for the first time since the Brexit vote as the City shifts its focus away from the Continent. Around 34% of exports by banks and finance companies went to America in 2020, according to research by the banking lobby group TheCityUK, compared to 30% to the EU. The US was in pole position for the first time since it started collecting data in 2016. - Telegraph

Gatwick was once the bright and shining future for British Airways. Robert Ayling, the airline's chief executive in the late 1990s and the man who brought us both the London Eye and the 02 Centre, had no doubt about it. "BA now firmly believes that Gatwick is at last one of the best transfer hubs in the world and is determined to be at the forefront of its future," he said in 1997. The airline boasted of the "hub without the hubbub" in an advert filmed in a full-scale replica of a Gatwick terminal built at Pinewood Studios. Ayling's big push was the culmination of much head-scratching at BA — not only on what to do with Gatwick, a potentially weak southern flank to its fortress at Heathrow — but also the bigger quandary of how to grow. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks stormed ahead on Tuesday, with major indices building upon the previous session's solid gains as fears regarding the Covid-19 omicron variant subsided.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.40% at 35,719.43, while the S&P 500 was 2.07% firmer at 4,686.75 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 3.03% stronger at 15,686.92.