Barclays on track to meet expectations, Sainsbury's lifts guidance

Stocks to watch

Barclays said it was on track to meet full-year guidance as it posted a 16% jump in pre-tax profits driven by growth across all its businesses. The bank on Thursday said group income rose 11% to £7.2bn, with pre-tax profit coming in at £2.6bn, generating a group return on tangible equity of 15% and earnings per share of 11.3p. Bad debt provisions increased to £524m from £141m reflecting higher US cards balances and the continuing normalisation anticipated in US cards delinquencies.

UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's on Thursday lifted guidance for the current fiscal year after posting a fall in 2022/23 profits. The group posted an underlying profit before tax of £690m, down 5% and at the top end of £630 – 690m guidance range, with the decline attributed to the annualisation of Covid-19 driven grocery volume and operating cost inflation, partially offset by operating cost savings and lower finance charges. On a statutory basis, profits fell to £327m against £854m last year, impacted by non-cash asset impairments, a higher discount rate and one-off income from legal settlements in the prior year.

Newspaper round-up

Britain’s poor record on health is costing the economy £43bn a year and cutting the annual incomes of individuals affected by long-term sickness by up to £2,200 a year on average, a report says. With official figures showing more days lost to sickness than at any time since 2004, the Institute for Public Policy Research said improving the country’s health was vital both for the economy and to boost the incomes of disadvantaged groups. – Guardian

Online casinos will face tougher restrictions under government proposals to overhaul Britain’s gambling laws, but the majority of measures will be subject to further consultation, signalling even more delay to long-awaited changes. A white paper, the result of a review launched in 2020, is due to be published on Thursday, after being postponed multiple times. – Guardian

Shares in Facebook’s parent company Meta soared last night as it broke a losing streak to post its first rise in sales in a year. The social media giant reported a 3pc increase in quarterly revenues to $28.6bn (£23bn), shrugging off Wall Street projections that it would post a fourth straight drop in revenue. – Telegraph

Demand for inflation-protected government bonds has hit a record high in a sign that investors are sceptical of the Bank of England pledge that falling inflation is “pretty much guaranteed”. A sale of inflation-linked gilts on Wednesday was more than ten times oversubscribed as pension funds and other long-term investors rushed to buy the products. – Telegraph

PwC has become the latest business to turn to artificial intelligence, announcing plans to invest $1 billion in the technology to automate parts of its audit, tax and consulting services in its American business over the next three years. The Big Four accountant will work with the Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, to develop generative AI that can make it more efficient. – The Times

The Canadian miner being targeted by Glencore has cancelled a shareholder vote on plans to split itself in two in a move that enables the FTSE 100 commodities group to continue its $23 billion takeover pursuit. Teck Resources had been seeking shareholder approval to spin off its steelmaking coal business and had flatly rejected a rival proposal from Glencore instead to merge the two companies and then demerge their combined coal businesses. – The Times

US close

Wall Street ended the trading day in a mixed state on Wednesday, as a continued decline in First Republic Bank's shares fueled concerns about the banking sector.

Some solid earnings from major tech companies, however, helped to keep the Nasdaq Composite in positive territory.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.68% to close at 33,301.87, and the S&P 500 declined 0.38% to finish at 4,055.99.

Going the other way, the Nasdaq Composite managed to stay above water, gaining 0.47% to end the day at 11,854.35.

On the currency markets, the dollar was in the red against both sterling and the euro, falling by 0.47% on the pound to trade at 80.21p, and 0.61% on the common currency to 90.58 euro cents.