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Equity view

UK care-based housing and healthcare real estate investment trust Civitas said it had bought 10 supported living properties across Hertfordshire, Essex, Suffolk and Wales for £8.6m. The portfolio provides adapted homes along with personalised specialist care for 41 people with complex mental health care needs, administered by three care providers which already work across other properties within the Civitas portfolio, the company said on Friday.

AG Barr said trading was in line with expectations and that it planned to restart dividends in this financial year after the easing of lockdown restrictions for the hospitality sector. Despite lockdown restrictions in place for much of the first quarter, sales of soft drinks such as Irn Bru have been relatively strong since the start of the financial year in late January, the beverage maker said.

AstraZeneca said its Tagrisso cancer drug had been approved in the European Union after positive results from a phase 3 trial. Tagrisso is used to treat patients with early-stage epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated (EGFR) non-small cell lung cancer, AstraZeneca said on Friday.

Cancer therapies and diagnostics developer Avacta Group responded to speculation around the CE-mark submission for its SARS-CoV-2 antigen lateral flow test on Friday. The AIM-traded firm said the submission had been made to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) by its partner Mologic.

United Utilities raised its dividend in line with its policy as the water company reported a 21% drop in annual profit caused mainly by lower water bills. Underlying profit after tax fell by £103m to £383m in the year to the end of March from a year earlier as revenue dropped to £1.81bn from £1.86bn.

Investment platform AJ Bell posted a jump in interim profit and revenue on Thursday thanks in part to record levels of new customers. In the six months to the end of March, pre-tax profit rose 39% to £31.6m on revenue of £73.9m, up 21% on the same period a year ago.

Tate & Lyle has reported a 6% rise in adjusted annual profits driven by double-digit growth in its food and beverage division. The company on Thursday said pre-tax profits for the year to March 31 rose to £335m from £331m a year earlier. On a statutory basis, profits fell 4% to £283m. Revenue was up 1% to £2.8bn.

Pets at Home increased its final dividend by 10% and predicted a big jump in annual profit after reporting strong trading fuelled by people buying pets during the pandemic. Underlying pre tax profit for the year to 25 March fell 6.4% to £87.5m from a year earlier as revenue rose 7.9% to £1.14bn. Profit was reduced by £30m of pandemic costs and the repayment of £28.9m of business rates relief by the pet care group.

British Land's annual profit fell by more than one-third and the value of its properties dropped by more than 10% as the Covid-19 crisis took its toll on the commercial landlord. Underlying profit for the year to the end of March dropped 34.3% to £201m as British Land made provisions for non-payment of rent. British Land said it collected 83% of rent due for the year comprising 99% of office rent and 71% of retail.SSE increased its dividend in line with inflation as the energy company reported higher annual profit and stuck to its £7.5bn investment plan. Adjusted operating profit rose 1% to £1.51bn and adjusted pretax profit increased 4% to £1.06bn in the year to the end of March from a year earlier. Reported operating profit soared 185% to £2.74bn boosted by exceptional gains on disposals.

IT provider Softcat on Wednesday upgraded annual earnings guidance after reporting double-digit revenue growth in the third quarter. Softcat delivered further double-digit third-quarter year-on-year growth in revenue, gross profit and operating profit, reflecting performance “that was generally more broad-based than that seen in the first half”.

Wealth management business St James's Place said on Wednesday that it was "encouraged" that strong new business activity experienced in March had continued into the second quarter. St James's Place stated the combination of improving client confidence and high levels of accumulated savings as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns had driven strong engagement between its advisers and their clients, resulting in gross inflows for the five months ending 31 May tracking roughly 23% higher year-on-year.

Wagamama owner Restaurant Group said it had seen an encouraging recovery in sales since Covid-19 restrictions had been lifted in the UK. In the five weeks to May 16 around 130 Wagamama sites were open and traded at 85% of comparable 2019 sales levels, representing a 15% outperformance of the market and “reflecting ongoing strong delivery volumes and good trading from outdoor space in many locations”.

Industrial software company Aveva said trading had normalised in most of its markets from the impact of Covid-19, adding that the outlook remained in line with expectations. The company, which completed the purchase of OSIsoft in March, said revenue fell 1.6% to £820.4m and adjusted earnings of £226.4m, up 4.4%, for the year to March 31.

Engineering business Smiths Group said on Tuesday that after an extensive search, Paul Keel had been appointed to the company's board as chief executive officer, with immediate effect. Smiths Group stated that current CEO Andy Reynolds Smith would step down from his position but will continue to be available until the end of the fiscal year in order to ensure a smooth handover.

Infrastructure and road safety group Hill & Smith said revenue had risen 10% in the first fourth months of the current fiscal year. The company, which makes safety infrastructure for motorways, also reported a strong recovery in operating profit in comparison to the same period last year which was impacted by Covid-19 related disruption from the middle of March 2020.

Hilton Food Group said trading so far in 2021 was in line with its expectations after a strong start to the year. The food packing company reported growth across its markets. Demand increased in Europe with most countries under Covid-19 restrictions and home consumption of food up but there were extra costs linked to the pandemic.

London-listed infrastructure investment firm HICL has renegotiated its £400m revolving credit facility (RCF) used to support the acquisition of new investments, the company said on Monday. The facility links interest charged to HICL's performance in relation to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. HICL will incur a premium or reduction to the interest charged on the RCF based on performance against the targets.

Kainos' annual profit more than doubled to a record as organisations invested in their digital operations during the pandemic. Pretax profit for the year to the end of March rose 117% to £50.3m as revenue increased 31% to £234.7m. Adjusted pretax profit rose 124% to £57.1m.

Euromoney Institutional Investor said on Monday that it has bought Relationship Science (RelSci), a relationship-mapping data provider serving financial, professional services and not-for-profit organisations, for $7.4m (£5.2m). RelSci’s platform contains more than 9m profiles of global business leaders and senior management, and its proprietary software enables clients to easily identify and act upon their relationships across a range of core use-cases, Euromoney said. The business generated sales of $8.3m for the year to 31 December 2020.

Economic news

Over £700,000 is being lost to bank transfer scams every day in the UK, revealed the latest research by Which?. The research comes as part of a call for stronger protections to fix “an unfair and inconsistent” industry approach to reimbursement that currently results in less than half of losses being returned to victims.

A massive bitcoin mine was found in the UK this week following a police raid on a suspected cannabis farm. The mine, which was located on the outskirts of Birmingham, was stealing thousands of pounds worth of electricity from the mains supply, police said, with the miners using around 100 computers.

UK restaurants have seen a massive surge in bookings as lockdown curbs were eased by the government this month. Bookings in the week to May 24 were 132% higher than their level two years earlier, before the pandemic struck, according to data from booking website OpenTable produced for the Office for National Statistics.

Sterling popped higher after Bank of England policymaker Gertjan Vlieghe said the Bank is most likely to start raising interest rates "well into" next year. In remarks made at a lecture at the University of Bath, published by the BoE, Vlieghe said the Bank could make a move earlier in 2022 if the economy bounces back faster than expected.

Japanese car group Nissan is in talks to build a dedicated battery gigafactory in the UK, according to reports. Nissan is understood to be talking to the UK government about building the plant at its existing Sunderland site, according to the Financial Times.

Hybrid Air Vehicles announced on Wednesday it was planning to launch a string of routes and start commercial airship travel by 2025. The UK blimp maker, which has developed a new environmentally friendly airship, claimed that its aircraft would cut CO2 emissions emitted when flying by 90%.

Government borrowing fell in April but remained at its second highest level on record for the month, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics. Public sector borrowing was £31.7bn, down £15.6bn from the same month last year and marking the first annual fall since the start of the pandemic. The amount was comfortably below the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast of £39bn and consensus expectations of £32.4bn.

UK retail sales returned to more normal levels in May following a big jump in April after non-essential retailers were allowed to reopen, according to a survey released on Tuesday by the Confederation of British Industry. Retailers reported that sales volumes were "broadly average" for the time of year, with a balance of -3 in May from +16 in April. The reported sales balance declined to +18 in May from +20 the month before, coming in below consensus expectations of +25.

British businesses have the opportunity to create 240,000 low-carbon jobs and boost green exports by billions of pounds in their road to decarbonisation and meeting climate targets over the next decade. According to the latest report from the Confederation of British Industry, the UK needs to radically transform its economy in the next decade and transition to green business.

Liberty Steel Group is to offload a number of its UK plants, including its aerospace and specialist alloys steel business, as it looks to restructure following the collapse of backer Greensill Capital. Liberty, the UK’s third-largest steel company and part of the Gupta Family Group Alliance, said that the plant in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, was a “high-quality business” but was not core to its future vision for the company.

International events

Japan was set on Friday to extend a state of emergency in some areas of the country, including Tokyo, until 20 June to try to bring coronavirus cases down. Less than two months away from the start of the Summer Olympic Games, Japan is struggling to ease the strains on the national healthcare system as the pandemic shows no signs of easing.

The Kremlin said on Friday it regrets the US’ decision not to rejoin the Open Skies arms control pact. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the pact would lose utility if the US was not included.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He held their first call since President Joe Biden took office earlier this year on Thursday. Both sides had a “candid, pragmatic and constructive” conversation, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a Chinese-language online statement, translated by CNBC.

Researchers at IE University’s Center for the Governance of Change found that 51% of Europeans would favour reducing the number of national parliamentarians and giving the seats to artificial intelligence. The study, which surveyed 2,769 people from 11 countries worldwide, found that more than half of Europeans would like to see some of their members of parliament replaced by algorithms that would access their data.

Gold prices have hit their highest level since January as concerns about inflation continue to grow. The precious metal breached $1,900 per ounce early on Wednesday, though it edged marginally lower again as the session wore on. By 1400 BST, it was trading at around $1,898.

China is falling short on the purchases of US goods needed in order to complete the phase one trade deal that it signed in January 2020 and that is set to wind up in December 2021. Beijing and Washington agreed that the Asian giant would purchase at least $200bn-worth of US products in 2020 and 2021 to reach 2017 levels.

German business sentiment hit a two-year high in May, according to a survey released on Tuesday by the Ifo Institute. The business climate index rose to 99.2 from a revised 96.6 in April. This was above consensus expectations for a reading of 98.0 and marked the highest value since May 2019.

New home sales surprised to the downside in April, in part as demand driven by the Covid-19 pandemic waned. According to the Department of Commerce, the annualised rate of new home sales fell from 917,000 for March to 863,000 in April.

The Group of Seven major economies are close to agreement on a corporate tax of multinational companies, paving the way for a global deal later in the year, the Financial Times reported on Monday. A G7 pact could be sealed as early as Friday after progress was made among top officials in recent days, the paper stated, citing unnamed officials.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog (The International Atomic Energy Agency) and Iran agreed on Monday to extend their monitoring agreement by one month. Speaking at a press conference, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said the new deal would run through to 24 June.