Close Brothers Group performs well in 1H, Ninety One posts small gain in AuM
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to start the day about 80 points lower at 7,505.
Stocks to watch
Close Brothers Group reported that the firm had "performed well" over the first half of its financial year with "good" loan book growth and "strong" margins in Banking. Growth momentum at Close Brothers Asset Management had continued, although trading income in Winterflood has moderated since the end of the 2021 financial year.
Investment company Ninety One on Friday said assets under management at December 31 had risen to £141.7bn compared with £128.6bn a year earlier. The figure was a slight rise on the £140bn recorded at the end of last September, Ninety One said in an extremely short trading update.
Promotional products business 4imprint Group said on Friday that full-year unaudited group revenues had shot up in 2021, pushing pre-tax profits towards the upper end of analysts' forecasts. 4imprint stated revenues for the 2021 financial year was approximately $787.0m, an increase of 41% year-on-year, as its total order count was roughly 90% of the figure seen in 2019, demonstrating "a strong recovery" in the business over the course of the year.
In the press
In times of market dislocation, it rises sharply to reflect the difficulties in transporting goods — and during the pandemic it has done little else but rise, peaking at more than 5,700. [...] That peak in the Baltic Dry was hit on October 7. Since then, the index has fallen sharply, halving within a month. Though it jumped in the run-up to Christmas, it has dropped back again since. Yesterday it fell further, its tenth consecutive daily decline, to 1,570. To put that in context, that puts the index back only to February 2021 levels but not completely out of kilter with the average over the past decade. - The Times
Millions of households are facing a steep increase to their broadband and phone line costs in a "tax on working from home" after BT kicked off a wave of price rises with an inflation-busting 9.3pc increase. BT will charge up to 14m customers as much as £42 a year more for their broadband after it put up charges in the wake of surging inflation, piling further pressure on households already facing a significant blow from higher taxes and energy prices in April. - Daily Telegraph
One of Unilever's biggest shareholders has raised the prospect of replacing chief executive Alan Jope and accused management of putting the company through a "near-death experience" with an aborted £50bn bid for part of GlaxosmithKline. Terry Smith, a top 10 shareholder in Unilever, said the company must fix fundamental problems of its own instead of seeking a mega-deal. - Daily Telegraph
US close
Wall Street stocks closed lower on Thursday after this week's jobless claims figures came in worse than expected.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.89% at 34,715.39, while the S&P 500 was 1.10% weaker at 4,482.73 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.30% softer at 14,154.02.
The Dow closed 313.26 points higher on Thursday, extending losses recorded in the previous session.
Bond yields were firmly in focus again on Thursday, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note down by five basis points at around 1.81%, while the two-year, the note most closely tied to Federal Reserve rate policy, most recently yielded about 1.012%.