Informa on track for top-end earnings, Compass launches next phase of buyback

Stocks to watch

Events group Informa on Friday said it was on track to deliver earnings at the upper end of guidance as revenues grew by 10.1% in the year to date. Sales hit £1.4bn in the period, with a further £1bn of subscriptions/exhibitor revenue committed and visible in 2024, and strong events rebooking into 2025, the company said in a statement ahead of its annual general shareholder meeting.

Compass Group announced on Friday that it had agreed to repurchase up to $250m of its shares between 21 June and 17 December, as part of the final stage of its $500m share buyback plan. The FTSE 100 company said the purpose of the plan was to reduce its share capital by returning surplus capital to shareholders. All purchased shares would be held in treasury for employee share schemes, with no acquisitions related to American depositary receipts.

Newspaper round-up

The owner of Royal Mail is facing a near £900m class action claim over accusations it abused its “dominant position” in the market for sending out bulk mail, including bank statements and weekly magazines. International Distribution Services (IDS) has been served with an £878m action by a newly formed company that said it represents an estimated 290,000 customers who claim they were overcharged as a result of Royal Mail’s behaviour. – Guardian

Jess Christman, who runs a Scottish timber business, recalls that banks were “throwing money” at him during the Covid-19 pandemic as Rishi Sunak, then the chancellor, sought to help small companies stave off collapse. Christman, who runs Black Isle Firewood, near Inverness, which produces firewood and sawn timber and huts for the tourism market, ended up taking out a government-backed loan under the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS). – Guardian

Households should brace for a £600 rise in annual council tax bills regardless of who wins the election, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The think tank said the failure of all parties to set out detailed plans on how they would pay for social care proposals would force councils, which deliver the services, to drastically raise taxes. Increasing council tax by 5pc per year – the maximum allowed annually without a local referendum – would raise the average band D property’s annual bill by £600 by the end of the next parliament. – Telegraph

GSK remains “unequivocally, 100 percent committed” to retaining its listing in Britain, the drugs company’s chief executive has said, in a boost for the London Stock Exchange after several big companies moved their listings to New York. Speaking at The Times CEO Summit, Dame Emma Walmsley said that although GSK generated only 3 percent of its business in Britain and that while she considered herself a “globalist” who had worked around the world, switching the company’s listing was “not a debate for us”. – The Times

US close

US stocks finished mixed on Thursday with the Dow closing higher but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq retreating from record highs as Nvidia swung sharply into the red in afternoon trade.

After rising as much as 3.8% earlier on, Nvidia's stock finished the day down 3.5% at $130.78, taking a $246bn intraday swing, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Thursday's fall follows a 24% increase in the share price since the start of June, and a 170%-plus gain since the start of the year.

On the back of Nvidia's decline, the S&P 500 closed down 0.25%, pulling back from Wednesday's all-time closing high of 5,487.03, while the Nasdaq dropped 0.79% from its previous peak of 17,862.23 – with the latter snapping a seven-day winning streak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, rose 0.77% to 39,134.76 – though remained firmly below its record-high close of 40,003.59 reached last month.