Proactive Investors - 7.54am: GSK tops forecasts, Entain (LON:ENT) ups guidance
Good news from GSK PLC which has reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, largely due to strong sales of its popular shingles vaccine, Shingrix.
The pharma giant, which spun out its Haleon consumer business last summer, posted adjusted earnings of 25.8p per share on revenues of around £7.4bn.
Ahead of the figures, the consensus for sales was £7.1bn, while EPS was 21.2p.
Also pleasing investors was Entain PLC which has predicted full-year profits ahead of expectations boosted by the World Cup which drove 11% growth in net gaming revenues (NGR) in the fourth quarter.
The owner of Coral and Ladbrokes (LON:LCL) now expects full-year group EBITDA between £985mln to £995mln, well ahead of the £925mln-£975mln range given in October.
This would represent growth of around 12% year-on-year with NGR also up 12%.
In a trading update the FTSE 100-listed group said quarter four saw record online NGR, up 12% on the previous year reflecting a “successful” men's World Cup, partly offset by weather disruptions to sporting fixtures.
7.37am: Revenue growth slows at Vodafone
Vodafone Group PLC (LON:VOD) said it “can do better” as it held guidance after reporting a slowdown in revenue growth in quarter three.
The FTSE 100 listed company said it was continuing to target adjusted EBITDAaL between €15.0 to 15.2bn and adjusted free cash flow of around €5.1bn.
But Margherita Della Valle, group chief executive said: "Although we're continuing to target our financial guidance for the year, the recent decline in revenue in Europe shows we can do better.”
She was commenting as the telco reported that group service revenues for the quarter were €9,520mln, up 1.8% on a like-for-like basis, but below the 2.5% growth seen in the previous quarter. On a reported basis the number was 1.3% lower on quarter two.
Total revenue for the quarter was €11,638mln, down 0.4% on a reported basis on the previous quarter, and 2.7% higher on an organic basis.
The slowdown in group service revenue growth from quarter two was driven by Europe where declines in Germany, Italy and Spain partially offset by good growth in UK and other European countries.
The quarterly trend was also impacted by lower roaming growth and phasing of business revenue in the fiscal year.
Germany service revenue declined by 1.8% on an organic basis compared to a 1.1% in quarter two largely reflecting customer losses related to the implementation of new sector legislation.
In the UK, service revenue increased by 5.3% compared to 6.9% in quarter two driven by good customer growth and price increases offset by lower roaming and visitor revenue growth, and ARPU dilution from retail price competition.
Vodafone Business service revenue growth of 2.4% driven by its digital services.
7.00am: FTSE seen higher
FTSE 100 is expected to open higher with investors eyeing the latest rate call from the Federal Reserve which is due after London closes, the first of three key interest rate decisions due this week.
Spread betting companies are calling the lead index up by around 10 points.
The markets are expecting a 25 basis point hike from the US central bank. In contrast, half a percent hikes are expected from the BoE and the ECB.
Ahead of that and there is plenty of corporate news in the diary with results from heavyweight names such as GSK PLC, Entain PC, Severn Trent PLC (LON:SVT) and Vodafone Group PLC.
In the US markets rose strongly with the Dow closed up 387 points, 1.1% at 34,086, the Nasdaq Composite adding 191 points, 1.7%, to 11,585 and the S&P 500 improving 59 points, 1.5%, to 4,077.
The last session of January closed a banner first month of 2023 for the benchmarks. The Nasdaq Composite added more than 10% in January, while the S&P 500 and Dow rallied 6.2% and 2.8%, respectively. For the Nasdaq, January was the best-performing month since July, and for the S&P, this was the best January since 2019.
Stocks in Asia were higher, despite some disappointing data about China and Japan's manufacturing sectors.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index was up 0.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.7% and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 0.9%.