Sage YTD revenues rise, Greggs H1 LFL sales surge

Stocks to watch

Software group Sage said on Tuesday that it had "performed strongly" in the first nine months of the year, with the group now expecting full-year revenues to be at the top end of previous guidance.

Sage stated total organic revenue was up 6% to £1.41bn, with recurring revenues growing 9% to £1.33bn and other revenues slipping 25% to £82.0m. In the third quarter, recurring revenues grew 10% to £464.0m, with growth accelerating as the year progressed, supported by the firm's continued investment in sales, marketing, and innovation.

High Street bakery chain Greggs reported a 22.4% rise in like-for-like sales for the half-year as trading normalised after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.

Total sales for the 26 weeks ended 2 July were up 27.1% at £694.5m.

Newspaper round-up

The daily gas production of Russia's Gazprom dropped in July to its lowest level since 2008, figures suggest, amid continued fears that Moscow could cause an energy crisis in Europe by shutting off the supply. The state-owned energy firm pumped 774.0m cubic metres a day last month – 14% less than in June – according to analysis by Bloomberg of data released on Monday. – Guardian

The heir to the digger company JCB has failed in an attempt to take control of a business run by his former best friend after a bitter US courtroom battle that included lurid allegations about personal conduct – and even revealed an apparent attempt to buy Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch. Jo Bamford, a grandson of the JCB founder, sued Joseph Manheim last year in Delaware, claiming that his former friend had "surreptitiously" taken control of a company they set up to help wealthy, mainly Chinese, investors get residence in the US. Bamford, 44, a self-styled "green entrepreneur", claimed Manheim secretly siphoned millions of dollars from the business and Bamford sought damages of $13.8m. – Guardian

The tax burden will remain at its highest level for 70 years if Rishi Sunak becomes Prime Minister despite his pledge to slash 4.0p off the basic rate of income tax, Britain's top fiscal think tank has said. Tax would still account for the largest proportion of national income since the early 1950s if the ex-Chancellor pulls off his promised tax cut in the next Parliament, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said. – Telegraph

Energy companies are attempting to overcome planning restrictions on onshore wind farms with an upgrade programme that could make hundreds of existing turbines taller. Octopus Energy has set its sights on up to 1,000 turbines which it hopes to reconfigure or replace, providing electricity for up to half a million more homes than they currently supply. In many cases the refit would involve installing bigger blades or adding as much as 20 metres to existing turbines' height. – Telegraph

The boss of HSBC has warned that breaking up the bank would destroy value for investors as the lender set out its defence against a push by its largest shareholder to split the group in two. Noel Quinn used the company's half-year results yesterday to mount a rebuttal of a proposal from Ping An for the bank to spin off its Asian business into a separate company listed in Hong Kong. He said the FTSE 100 group had examined a number of options for the way it is structured but believed that "international connectivity is core to our entire value proposition". – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed weaker on the first day of August as manufacturing data and comments from the Fed's Neel Kashkari remained in focus throughout the session.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.14% at 32,798.40, while the S&P 500 lost 0.28% to 4,118.63 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.18% weaker at 12,368.98.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com