Persimmon interim profits fall; Balfour Beatty upgrades FY guidance

Stocks to watch

Housebuilder Persimmon posted a fall in interim profits, but reiterated completion guidance and said price rises were offsetting cost inflation.

The company said pre-tax profit for the six months to June 30 fell to £439.7 from £480m. Total revenue fell to £1.68bn from £1.84bn, while completions fell to 6,652 from 7,406 against a strong comparator last year when demand for larger homes surged during the Covid pandemic.

Guidance of 14,500-15,000 completions for the full year was maintained.

Construction firm Balfour Beatty upgraded full year guidance after interim profits more than doubled and new orders rose 10%.

The company posted a pre-tax profit of £83m, up from £35m a year earlier and now expects annual earnings to be ahead of previous expectations.

Newspaper round-up

The executive overseeing construction of London’s “super sewer” under the Thames has been awarded bonuses that doubled his pay to nearly £1m despite delays and cost over-runs on the flagship project. With executive pay in the water industry already under scrutiny, Tideway has revealed it paid its chief executive, Andy Mitchell, a total package of £928,000 for the year to 31 March 2022, up 7.5% from £863,000 a year earlier. – Guardian

Bikes could be made to have registration plates and insurance as ministers weigh up bringing speed limits for cyclists into line with those for drivers. The government is also considering the possibility of cyclists receiving licence penalty points and fines if they break speed limits or run red lights, the Daily Mail reported. – Guardian

Germany plans to keep its remaining nuclear power plants open for longer in a major U-turn as it scrambles to keep the lights on this winter with less Russian gas. Officials have concluded the plants are needed due to gas shortages and they can be kept open without safety concerns, the Wall Street Journal reported. – Telegraph

The world’s biggest airline has announced a deal to buy a fleet of new high-tech jets dubbed the “son of Concorde”, setting up the return of supersonic transatlantic flights by the end of the decade. American Airlines on Tuesday agreed to purchase up to 20 Overture aircraft from Boom Supersonic, with an option to extend the order to 40. – Telegraph

Corporate insolvencies rose by 7.5 per cent last month compared with June and were 27 per cent higher than they were three years ago, before the pandemic struck. The Insolvency Service said yesterday that there had been 1,827 company insolvencies in England and Wales last month, 67 per cent higher than a year ago. – The Times

US Close

Wall Street's main market gauges closed in a mixed state on Tuesday after a weak reading for US housing starts, although better-than-expected quarterly reports out of retail giants Walmart and Home Depot kept the Dow in the green.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.71% at 34,152.01 and the S&P 500 added 0.19% to 4,305.20, while the Nasdaq Composite was off 0.19% at 13,102.55.