Josh White Sharecast News
31 Jan, 2025 07:45

Smiths Group to sell interconnect unit, Tritax Big Box flags strong balance sheet

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 20 points higher on Friday, having closed up 1.04% on Thursday at 8,646.88.

Stocks to watch

Engineering business Smiths Group on Friday said it was selling its interconnect unit and planned to demerge or offload the detection operation as part of a strategic review that includes extending its share buyback to £500m. Smiths added that the recent cyber attack was limited to internal enterprise systems, and it had “made good progress in the recovery of these, with most critical systems being back online”.

Tritax Big Box reported a strong balance sheet in an update on Friday, with a loan-to-value ratio of 29% as of 31 December, down from 32% a year earlier. The company said its weighted average cost of debt rose slightly to 3.1%, though 93% of drawn debt remained fixed or hedged. Total available liquidity exceeded £500m, while weighted average debt maturity declined to 4.5 years from 5.2 years in 2023.

Newspaper round-up

Apple slightly beat analysts’ expectations in its first-quarter earnings for fiscal year 2025 on Thursday. The iPhone-maker’s revenue rose by 4%, coming in at $124.30bn, barely above estimates of $124.12bn. Earnings per share were $2.40, just ahead of analysts’ expectations of $2.35. Shares rose more than 8% in extended trading after CEO Tim Cook indicated in an earnings call on Thursday that Apple is on the trajectory for revenue growth next quarter. – Guardian

Staff at the Daily Mail and MailOnline have been told to expect job cuts by the publisher as it unveiled plans to combine its digital and print editorial and commercial teams into one seven-day operation. In a letter to colleagues on Thursday, the Daily Mail’s editor-in-chief, Ted Verity, and the publisher and chief executive of parent group DMG media, Danny Groom, announced a shake-up that would “result in a number of job losses”. – Guardian

The Abu Dhabi fund that was blocked from taking control of The Telegraph is pursuing a potentially less controversial tie-up with ITV’s production arm as it attempts to build a global media empire. RedBird IMI has stepped up discussions to merge All3Media, the independent production house behind The Traitors, which it acquired for £1.2bn last year, with ITV Studios to create a film and TV powerhouse worth almost £3bn. – Telegraph

Plans to fly millions more passengers from London City Airport have triggered a row over noise in a sign of the challenges that Rachel Reeves faces in putting aviation at the heart of her growth plans. London City Airport has been accused of using “backdoor tactics” to get around strict noise limits after announcing plans for full-sized airliners to use its short runway. The airport said on Monday it had submitted an application to the aviation regulator seeking permission to run flights using Airbus A320 planes that can carry more than 180 passengers. – Telegraph

OpenAI is in talks for an investment round to raise nearly $40 billion that would value the ChatGPT maker at up to $340 billion. The Microsoft-backed company was last valued at $157 billion in October when it raised $6.6 billion. However, under discussions reported by the Wall Street Journal, the AI company’s valuation has almost doubled. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment. – The Times

US close

Major indices turned in a positive session on Thursday as market participants digested quarterly earnings from several big-name tech firms.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.38% at 44,882.13, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.53% to 6,071.17 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.25% firmer at 19,681.75.

The Dow closed 168.61 points higher on Thursday, reversing losses recorded in the previous session after the Federal Reserve Bank opted to keep its benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged following its two-day policy meeting, as expected.

In the corporate space, shares in Facebook parent company Meta Platforms traded higher after its Q4 numbers beat on both the top and bottom lines.

Software giant Microsoft headed south after Azure cloud computing revenues narrowly missed consensus estimates and electric carmaker Tesla shares accelerated despite its Q4 results falling short of Wall Street expectations.

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