Hargreaves Lansdown reports growth in AuA, BP quarterly profits slide

Stocks to watch

Hargreaves Lansdown reported assets under administration of £157.3bn for the quarter ended 30 September on Tuesday, with growth driven by £1.5bn in positive market movements and £0.5bn in net new business. The FTSE 100 company said it saw a net increase of 18,000 clients, with notable gains in SIPP, ISA, and Active Savings accounts, while client retention held at 92%. Revenue rose to £196.5m, boosted by increased trading activity and higher platform revenue, offsetting lower revenue on cash due to a reduced net interest margin.

BP posted a slide in quarterly profits, hit by weaker refining margins, although the decline was not as steep as feared. Underlying replacement cost profit, a key measure for the oil and gas major, was $2.3bn in the third quarter. That was down on both the second quarter’s $2.8bn, and last year’s $3.3bn. BP said the results reflected weaker refining margins, a weak oil trading result and lower liquids realisations, although they were partly offset by higher gas realisations.

HSBC announced another $3bn share buyback as it posted better-than-expected third-quarter profits. In the three months to the end of September, pre-tax profit rose 10% on the same period a year earlier to $8.5bn, versus analysts’ expectations of $7.6bn. HSBC said revenue increased 5% to $17bn, reflecting higher customer activity in its wealth products in Wealth & Personal Banking, supported by volatile market conditions, and in Foreign Exchange, Equities and Global Debt Markets in Global Banking and Markets.

Newspaper round-up

A lack of social mobility is costing the UK £19bn a year, a report produced by the cross-party thinktank Demos and the Co-op has found. The Social Mobility Commission, which advises the government, defines social mobility as “the link between a person’s occupation or income and the occupation or income of their parents”. – Guardian

New Brexit border checks are reducing consumer choice and compromising Britain’s food security, according to fresh produce sellers and plant growers. A joint letter from the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) and the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) has called for an urgent meeting with the government over the continued problems their members face when importing plants and cut flowers under the current border system. – Guardian

Delivery giant Evri has been named the UK’s worst parcel distribution company for the second year running, with around one in two customers reporting a problem with its service. The courier, which rebranded from Hermes two years ago following a wave of parcel mishandling allegations, has been dogged by complaints over issues such as delays and parcels being left in the wrong place. – Telegraph

Ed Miliband has been urged to dispose of Britain’s nuclear waste by drilling boreholes up to five kilometres deep into the Earth’s crust. University academics said advances in tunnel-digging technology mean the previously-dismissed idea is viable and could be put into action more quickly and cheaply than alternatives. – Telegraph

The chief executive of one of the country’s biggest commercial property developers has said he would be investing “hundreds of millions and more” in building new data centres if he could secure the electricity supply that those sites demand. David Sleath, chief executive of Segro, the FTSE 100 developer and landlord, told Times Radio that, in some cases, his teams were waiting “a number of years” for local substations to be upgraded, increasing their grid capacity. If that capacity was available now, Segro, which already owns and operates 35 data centres around the UK, would already be building many more, he said. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks were in the green at the close of trading on Monday as market participants prepared for a week jam-packed with Q3 earnings.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.65% at 42,387.57, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.27% to 5,823.52 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.26% firmer at 18,567.19.

The Dow closed 273.17 points higher on Monday, reversing losses recorded in the previous session as the blue-chip index snapped a six-week winning streak.

Earnings were set to be in focus this week as five of the so-called "Magnificent Seven" will report quarterly numbers before the week is out, with figures due from Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Amazon and Apple.

Both 5 November's presidential election and news that weekend airstrikes by Israel against Iran had not targeted oil or nuclear facilities as initially feared also drew an amount of investor attention on Monday.