Results round-up

The spread-betting, contracts for difference and forex trading provider increased trading revenue 14% to £456.3m in the year ended 31 May, ahead of the company-complied consensus analyst estimate of £448m.

Slightly more than 100,000 new accounts were opened in the year, 42% ahead of the prior year, and the second half of the year was 35% ahead of the first half, with the new share dealing service in the UK gaining 11,000 funded accounts of which around 2,900 were active clients by year end.

This fed through to a pre-exceptional profit before tax of £207.9m that was up 8% on the previous year and beat the consensus forecast of £204m.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share were lifted 9% to 44.6p versus consensus of 43.8p, also breaking out of the tight range of 38-42p for the last four years as management investing heavily to broaden the business via extension of products and geographies and develop the platform.

A final dividend of 22.95p per share hikes the full year dividend to 31.4p, 11.5% higher than last year.

Royal Mail said trading for the three months ended 26 June was in line with its expectations, with group revenue up 1% and UK revenue down 1%.

Parcel volumes in the first quarter were up 2%, driven by import parcels and Royal Mail account parcels as well as an improving trend in the consumer/SME segment.

Meanwhile, volume growth at Parcelforce Worldwide slowed to 2% due to a very strong prior period.

Parcel revenue was up 2%, reflecting the impact of initiatives across all our channels to improve our products and price mix.

Addressed letter volumes fell by 2%, excluding the impact of political parties' election mailings, reflecting the timing of the return of direct delivery volumes in the prior period and certain mailings associated with the EU referendum. Excluding these one-off impacts, addressed letter volumes were down around 4%.

Total letter revenue was 3% lower due to the impact of low inflation and continued trends in downtradin