Ashtead holds dividend as profits fall, Greggs puts shop openings on ice

Stocks to watch

Construction equipment hire firm Ashtead saw fourth quarter profits halve but paid a dividend despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Pre-tax profits for the period fell 52% to £98m, while the dividend was held at 33.5p a share.

Greggs said it had frozen almost all shop openings and asked landlords for rent cuts as the baker set out plans to reopen about 800 stores for takeaway service on Thursday.The FTSE 250 company said with sales likely to be lower for some time it had suspended openings except at sites where it was obliged to carry on or it expected strong trading. Greggs expects to open about 60 shops and close 50 in the current year. Greggs said it paid its full quarterly rent in March but had made a range of proposals to landlords in return for rent reductions and had told landlords it would switch to monthly payments from June.

Clinical-stage biotherapeutics company PureTech Health said on Tuesday that its Akili subsidiary has been granted US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for ‘EndeavorRx’, or AKL-T01, as a prescription treatment for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The FTSE 250 firm said EndeavorRx, delivered through a “video game experience”, was indicated to improve attention function as measured by computer-based testing in children aged between eight and 12, with primarily inattentive or combined-type ADHD.

Newspaper round-up

Deliveroo and the bosses of major chains including Pizza Hut, Pret a Manger, Itsu and Wagamama have asked the prime minister for urgent support to prevent mass closures, as physical distancing rules threaten the future of the restaurant industry. The food delivery firm and 90 of its partners, representing more than 1,000 restaurants across the UK, have written a letter to Boris Johnson outlining a range of measures they say are needed to weather an extended period of reduced capacity. - Guardian

MPs who have spent a year gathering evidence on gambling-related harm will on Tuesday publish proposals that could shape a government review of how the £11bn industry is regulated. The cross-party group, which has previously campaigned successfully for a ban on credit card bets and the curbing of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), will urge much tighter controls on a sector that has grown rapidly in recent years. – Guardian

Willie Walsh has hit back at a scathing report by MPs on British Airways' treatment of staff during the coronavirus pandemic. The Commons transport committee branded BA a “national disgrace” over plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs and change working conditions. Mr Walsh, chief executive of parent company IAG, defended the airline’s response to the crisis, saying it was acting in a “perfectly lawful manner” in its fight to survive. – Telegraph

Germany will invest €300m (£269m) in a private biotech firm on the brink of clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine as governments race to defeat the virus. The Government’s purchase of a 23pc stake in CureVac comes after reported attempts by the Trump administration to court the firm and secure supply of any future vaccine sparked political backlash in Berlin. – Telegraph

Amanda Staveley has claimed that she told a top Barclays executive in their very first talks that she was seeking to put together a syndicate of investors to rescue the bank during the financial crisis. PCP Capital Partners, Ms Staveley’s firm, is suing Barclays in the High Court for as much as £1.5 billion over alleged deceit by the bank during a £7.3 billion emergency fundraising 12 years ago that meant the lender avoided a taxpayer bailout. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Monday despite market participants struggling with signs of a second wave of Covid-19 cases as the US economy emerges from lockdown.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.62% at 25,763.16, while the S&P 500 was 0.83% firmer at 3,066.59 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.43% stronger at 9,726.02.

The Dow closed 157.62 points lower on Monday, carrying on from Friday's solid gains that came as stocks bounced back from sharp losses a day earlier.

At the bell, shares tied to the reopening of the economy such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean, American Airlines and United Airlines were all down at least 4.5%, while Kohl's and the Gap also traded lower, as the likes of Alabama, California, Florida, Texas and North Carolina all reported a rise in new coronavirus-related hospitalisations.

Weaker-than-expected retail and industrial production data out of China and news of a spate of new Covid-19 cases in a major wholesale food market in Beijing was also weighing on sentiment.

However, an announcement from the Federal Reserve that it would look to purchase individual corporate bonds gave sentiment a boost later in the session.