Kier Group meets full-year expectations, Mitchells & Butlers reports drop

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 17 points higher on Thursday, after closing up 0.06% at 6,834.77 on Wednesday.

Stocks to watch

Property, residential, construction and services company Kier Group posted its preliminary results for the year to 30 June on Thursday, falling in line with expectations as revenue grew 26% to £4.2bn, or 8% on a like-for-like basis. The FTSE 250 firm’s underlying profit from operations was £150m - up 44% - which included a full-year contribution from Mouchel, an increased share of property joint venture results, and margin recovery supported by cost efficiencies. Underlying earnings per share were up 11% at 106.7p, with the board proposing a 17% increase in the full-year dividend to 64.5p.

FTSE 100 engineering giant Rolls-Royce announced the appointment of Stephen Daintith - currently finance director of the Daily Mail and General Trust - as chief financial officer from 2017. He will replace David Smith in the new year, who is leaving Rolls-Royce after three years to pursue “other business interests”.

Pub group Mitchells & Butlers reported a drop in full year sales but a rise in the most recent eight weeks of trading, as it reiterated that full-year margins will be below the previous year. In a pre-close trading update, the company said total sales in the 51 weeks to 17 September fell by 0.8%, with food sales down 1.4% and drink sales 0.1% lower. Mitchells said margins will be below last year due to the acceleration of investment in the estate and wage inflation following the introduction of the National Living Wage in the second half.

Micro Focus confirmed full year revenue is still likely to be no better than flat compared to last year's. In an announcement ahead of its annual shareholder meeting, the FTSE 100 company said revenue could fall as much as 2% on a constant currency basis after trading in the financial year to date remained consistent with previous management guidance.

Newspaper round-up

Confidence among small businesses is at a four-year low because of concerns among companies that the economy will weaken as Britain prepares to leave the European Union. A survey by the Federation of Small Businesses has revealed that confidence has fallen for the third consecutive quarter. Those who are pessimistic about their prospects outweighed those feeling optimistic for the first time since 2012. The lobby group described the study as a wake-up call for politicians to act to “avoid an economic slowdown”. - The Times

Hedge funds are being warned that they could inadvertently put Anheuser-Busch InBev’s £79 billion takeover of SABMiller at risk unless they convert their derivatives in the Peroni and Grolsch brewer into shares. Although the odds are that the vote by SABMiller investors will be waved through next week, advisers are warning that because of the unusual nature of the vote, there is a small chance the funds could unintentionally block it. - The Times

Unpublished field trials by pesticide manufacturers show their products cause serious harm to honeybees at high levels, leading to calls from senior scientists for the companies to end the secrecy which cloaks much of their research. The research, conducted by Syngenta and Bayer on their neonicotinoid insecticides, were submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency and obtained by Greenpeace after a freedom of information request. - The Guardian

US close

Traders pushed the main Wall Street equity benchmarks higher after the US central bank’s decision to keep policy unchanged, although no less than three voters on the Federal Open Market Committee dissented, casting their ballots in favour of an immediate rate hike.

Worth noting too, in her press conference Fed chair Janet Yellen noted that the FOMC's decision did not reflect a lack of confidence in the economy.

With the Fed safely out of the way – at least for the moment - the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.90% or 163.74 to 18,293.70 points, the S&P 500 gained 1.09% or 23.36 points to 2,163.12 points and the Nasdaq advanced 1.03% or 53.83 points to end at 5,295.18 points.

Oil prices were also on the up after data showed a surprise drop in US crude inventories.

The Energy Information Agency said US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 6.2m barrels last week to 504.6m barrels.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures jumped 3.4% to $45.57 per barrel and Brent advanced 2.51% to $47.06 per barrel.

According to the Summary of Economic Projections, the presidents of the Fed's regional banks and the members of the central bank's board lowered their median forecast for the Fed funds rate at the end of 2017 from 1.6% to 1.1% and for 2018 from 2.6% to 1.9%.