WS Atkins hits annual margin target, N Brown's flat start

Stocks to watch

Design, engineering and project management consultancy WS Atkins reported a 6% rise in revenue in its final results on Thursday, to £1.86bn. The FTSE 250 firm posted underlying operating profit of £148.2m, up 10.5%, achieving its 8% margin target at the same time.

Trading has remained subdued at clothing retailer N Brown with revenue down 0.2% in the first quarter, though management are confident of hitting their full year targets. Chief executive Angela Spindler said a 1.6% decline in product sales was "satisfactory" when viewed against the challenging sector backdrop and was counterbalanced by a 3.4% increase in financial services revenue driven by new credit customers.

France based electrical retailer Darty lifted full year group retail profits 24% to €93.1m with revenue up 4.1% to €3.6bn and like-for-like sales up 3.9% but decided not to pay a dividend due to its looming takeover from French retailer Fnac. Adjusted profits before tax jumped 36% to €69.6m and adjusted earnings per share rose to 7.3 cents from 5.8 in 2015.

Newspaper round-up

Heathrow has sought to pressure the Government into giving a controversial third runway the go-ahead by warning that ministers’ much-heralded “Northern Powerhouse” idea is “at risk” if the airport if not expanded. The airport claimed that the North of England is losing £710m in import and export trade every year because the London hub is full, which is forcing long-haul fliers to and from UK regional airports to travel to via hubs abroad instead of Heathrow. – Telegraph

The Financial Conduct Authority has caved in to banks over payment protection insurance compensation by backing their call for a two-year deadline for new claims, against the view of its own experts. The shift — revealed in internal documents — is the latest example of the FCA softening its stance with banks and comes after a public row this year over its decision to scrap a review of banks’ conduct. – The Times

Big companies with large pension deficits have paid dividends to shareholders in the past two years that would have plugged black holes in their retirement schemes. Analysis shows that 54 FTSE 100 companies that have funding deficits in their staff pension schemes paid out a total of £48 billion in dividends a year for the past two years. This compares with a deficit in their pension schemes that collectively stands at £52 billion. – The Times

The UK’s biotech sector is in fine fettle, having raised a record amount of capital last year, but the Government should do more to support growth and investment to ensure Britain becomes a global hub for the life sciences industry, according to a report. British biotechnology companies raised a record £489m in venture capital in 2015, up from £323m in 2014 and accounting for more than a third of the European total. - Telegraph

US close

Wall Street's main equity indices finished the session in the red despite the considerably less-hawkish policy stance announced by the US central bank on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrials Average slipped into the red following the Fed's policy announcement, losing 0.20% or 34.65 points to finish the session at 17,640.17, while the S&P 500 lost 0.18% or 3.82 points to close at 2,071.50 and the Nasdaq Composite erased 0.18% or 8.62 points to 4,834.93.

As had been widely anticipated, the Federal Reserve kept all its main policy settings unchanged, though in their economic projections, the rate setters said they now expected the Fed funds rate to end 2018 at just 2.4%, well down from their March projection of 3.0%.