Victrex names new CFO, Moonpig upgrades FY revenue outlook

Stocks to watch

Polymer solutions firm Victrex revealed on Tuesday that Ian Melling had been tapped to take over as its next chief financial officer, with effect from 4 July.

Victrex said Melling had been selected to succeed Richard Armitage, who will step down as CFO on 27 May, following "a diverse and thorough search process". In the intervening period between Armitage's departure and Melling's arrival, Mike Ward, currently the firm's finance director, will assume the role of interim CFO.

Home repairs service Homeserve traded in line with expectations during its recently wrapped up fiscal year, with the group reporting steady policy retention rates in both the UK and US.

The FTSE 250-listed company also said on Tuesday that its total membership business had retained 84% of policies over the twelve-month period, up from 83% a year earlier.

Moonpig upgraded its revenue outlook for the current financial year on Tuesday after sales were boosted by consumer behaviour during the Omicron strain of Covid-19 in late December and January when trade at physical stores was dampened by the arrival of the variant.

The online greeting card and gift platform said revenue in the year to the end of April would be about £300.0m, up from earlier guidance of £270.0m-£285.0m, while its outlook for underlying revenue was unchanged at about £265.0m.

Newspaper round-up

Morrisons has warned its profits are likely to take a significant hit this year as the cost of living crisis and disruption due to the war in Ukraine weigh on the grocery market. The UK's fourth-largest supermarket chain said "developments in the geopolitical environment" and "ongoing and increasing inflationary pressure" since the beginning of February were hitting consumer sentiment and spending. - Guardian

Gambling and betting companies will be banned from using advertising featuring top-flight footballers and other sports personalities, as well as reality TV and social media stars, under new rules designed to protect under-18s and other vulnerable groups. The changes, set out by the body responsible for the UK code for advertising, will mean that past betting and gambling marketing that features stars and celebrities such as Cristiano Ronaldo, José Mourinho, Michael Owen and Harry Redknapp, would not be allowed in the UK. - Guardian

Airline chiefs have sought to blame the Government for widespread disruption to Easter travel as passengers faced cancelled flights and massive queues at airport security amid a severe shortage of staff. Customers were stuck in hours-long queues as airports were unable to open all of their security gates on Monday, with over 120 flights cancelled and hundreds more expected to be called off in the coming days. - Telegraph

Britain is not set for a repeat of the 1970s and war in Ukraine could lead to lower inflation than previously expected, a senior Bank of England official said. Sir Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial stability, said there was a risk the conflict could lead to inflation undershooting the 2% target. - The Times

MPs on a leading Commons committee have accused the prime minister of saying he would conduct a national security inquiry into the Chinese takeover of a semiconductor factory — then doing nothing about it. Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, has demanded that Boris Johnson answers questions on Newport Wafer Fab, the UK's largest microchip wafer fabricator, which last summer agreed a £63.0m takeover by Nexperia, a Chinese technology subsidiary. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks turned in a positive performance on Monday as Treasury yields remained inverted.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.30% at 34,921.88, while the S&P 500 was 0.81% stronger at 4,582.64 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.90% firmer at 14,532.55.