Informa expands share buyback programme, Renishaw reports mixed markets

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B2B events, publishing and data group Informa has lifted its share buyback programme by 50% after announcing a strong operating performance for the first four months of the year, with revenues, profits and cash flow expected to reach the upper end of guidance. The company said it has raised its 2024 share repurchase programme by a further £160m to £500m.

Technical instruments maker Renishaw on Wednesday lowered the upper end of full-year guidance amid what it described as “mixed” markets as earnings fell over the first nine months of its financial year. In a trading update, the company said it now expects revenue to be in the range of £680m to £700m and adjusted profit before tax of £122m to £135m. This compares with the £675m - £715m and £122m - £147m forecast at Renishaw’s interim results in February.

Pub group JD Wetherspoon said on Wednesday that it expects full-year profits to be towards the top of market expectations as it reported a jump in third-quarter sales. In the 13 weeks to 28 April, like-for-like sales rose 5.2% on the same period a year earlier, with year-to-date LFL sales up 8.3%. Total sales were 3.3% higher in the quarter and 6.5% firmer year-to-date.

Newspaper round-up

More than 800,000 people in Europe and the US appear to have been duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a vast network of fake online designer shops apparently operated from China. An international investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Le Monde gives a rare inside look at the mechanics of what the UK’s Chartered Trading Standards Institute has described as one of the largest scams of its kind, with 76,000 fake websites created. – Guardian

Passengers experienced delays at a number of UK airports on Tuesday due to a nationwide technical outage affecting UK Border Force e-gates. Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol airports all confirmed problems with passengers being processed through the border on Tuesday evening. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Home Office announced that e-gates came back online shortly after midnight. At the same time, Heathrow airport’s Twitter/X account said: “Following the Border Force national outage yesterday evening, all systems are now running as usual. Passengers can expect to travel through Heathrow smoothly. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.” – Guardian

Banks have shut the accounts of hundreds of defence companies amid fears that lenders’ internal ethics policies are putting national security at risk. Santander and Lloyds closed 300 accounts belonging to “public administration and defence” companies last year alone, according to correspondence with MPs on the Treasury Select Committee. Other major lenders did not provide a breakdown, suggesting the actual figure could be far higher. – Telegraph

Mike Ashley has stepped up his jet-set lifestyle since handing over the day-to-day running of Frasers Group to his son-in-law. The retail tycoon has increased his annual spend on Frasers’ private jet and helicopter to £2.6 million, after saying he felt “very confident passing the baton” to Michael Murray as the group’s new chief executive. – The Times

Brexit is likely to have had a “sizeable negative effect on the UK economy”, one of the International Monetary Fund’s most senior officials has said, citing the country’s exit from the European Union as an example of the dangers of trade fragmentation. Gita Gopinath, deputy managing director of the Washington-based fund, said Britain’s exit from the EU’s single market and customs union in 2020 showed the harmful consequences of breaking up trade ties, hurting economic growth and reducing cross-border investment. - The Times

US close

Major indices turned in a mixed performance on Tuesday as the blue-chip Dow Jones registered its fifth positive session in a row.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.08% at 38,884.26 and the S&P 500 saw out the session 0.13% firmer at 5,187.70, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.10% to 16,332.56.

The Dow closed 31.99 points higher on Tuesday, extending gains recorded in the previous session as sentiment continued to get a boost from last week's nonfarm payrolls data thanks to the combination of higher unemployment and weaker-than-expected payrolls and average earnings figures.

There was little in the way of market-moving news on Tuesday, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury dropping roughly three basis points to 4.45% being one of the day's main events.

In the corporate space, media giant Disney posted better-than-expected quarterly numbers, revealing that its streaming business had nearly broken even during Q1, while Palantir shares were down double-digits on weaker-than-expected guidance, and Peloton stock rallied on news that private equity firms were mulling a buyout of the fitness company.