Investec flags positive first-half performance, UK consumer confidence falls

Stocks to watch

Investec Group flagged a positive first-half financial performance in an update on Friday, with expected pre-provision adjusted operating profit between £520m and £550m, representing a 6.7% to 12.9% increase. The group said its performance was influenced by strategic actions, such as the Rathbones combination, leading to impacts on earnings and a lower basic earnings per share due to prior one-off gains. Despite challenges in the UK market, it said strong revenue momentum, improved cost-to-income ratio, and solid credit quality had positioned it well for growth.

UK consumer confidence fell sharply in September, a long-running survey showed on Friday, despite the more stable economic backdrop, as people nervously wait on next month’s Budget. The latest GfK Consumer Confidence Index came in at -20, a seven-point slide on August’s reading. All sub-measures fell. The index for expectations for personal finances in the coming 12 months fell nine points to -3, while the measure of predictions for the economic situation tumbled 12 points to -27.

German industrial producer prices fell 0.8% in August year on year due to lower energy costs, official data revealed on Friday. Prices were higher for capital, consumer and intermediate goods, said Federal statistical office Destatis.

Newspaper round-up

Trade union leaders will meet senior ministers on Saturday for crunch talks on the government’s workers’ rights package, as the government looks to head off a potentially damaging row at the Labour conference. General secretaries from the 11 unions affiliated to Labour will meet Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, on the eve of conference to thrash out details of the package, sources have told the Guardian. – Guardian

It appears to be game, set and match for the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) in its lengthy battle to build 39 new courts on Wimbledon Park after the Greater London Authority recommended that the project should be approved. The proposals have been deeply controversial, with local residents warning of 10 years of disruption as well as the creation of a huge “tennis industrial complex” that would lie silent for much of the year. However, officers at the GLA recommended on Thursday that the deputy mayor should grant conditional planning permission at a public hearing on Friday 27 September. – Guardian

A US energy giant has chosen South Yorkshire to host a landmark £1.5bn factory building the next generation of nuclear reactors in a major boost for the region. Holtec, a privately owned nuclear company headquartered in Florida, is looking at sites across the county including around the city of Doncaster, where Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has his constituency. – Telegraph

Angela Rayner is facing a European court battle with private equity baron Guy Hands over military housing owned by the financier. Mr Hands’s Annington Homes, which is owned through his private equity firm, Terra Firma, has filed a legal claim against the Housing Secretary with the European Court of Human Rights. The case centres on the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act, which was introduced by the previous government in May but which now falls under Ms Rayner’s brief. – Telegraph

A senior judge has lifted orders that prevented the naming of five former Glencore executives who investigators have linked to a long-running bribery case. Officials at the Serious Fraud Office had applied for orders originally to protect their investigations into alleged offences by individual executives after the FTSE 100 mining company pleaded guilty two years ago to a corporate charge of paying about £22 million in bribes. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday as traders celebrated the Federal Reserve's decision to slash interest rates by half a percentage point.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.26% at 42,025.19, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.70% to 5,713.64 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 2.51% firmer at 18,013.98.

The Dow closed 522.09 points higher on Thursday, easily reversing losses recorded in the previous session as the blue-chip index steamed ahead to a fresh record high.

The US central bank cut its overnight lending rate to a range of 4.75% to 5% overnight, down from 5.25% to 5.5%, which surprised many investors and analysts with its first rate reduction in four years, most of which were expecting a 0.25% cut.

On the macro front for Thursday, Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at a decelerated pace in the week ended 14 September, according to the Labor Department, beating market expectations.