The FTSE 100 index has crawled back in the past four days, erasing most of the losses made on Monday when global stocks tanked amid Japanese yen carry trade fears. The index has soared to £8,200, up from this week’s low of £7,916.
The Footsie was in the spotlight because of several important earnings and last week’s Bank of England (BoE) interest rate decision. In it, the bank decided to slash interest rates by 0.25%, moving the headline rate to 4.75%.
Several important FTSE 100 constituent companies published their financial results this week. Glencore (LON:GLEN), the giant mining company published its earnings and committed to maintaining its coal assets. The other top companies that released their results this week were Legal & General, WPP (LON:WPP), Abrdn, and InterContinental (LON:IHG) Hotels.
The other big news came from Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV), one of the biggest financial services companies in the UK. It published its earnings and agreed to be acquired by a consortium of private equity companies like CVC Capital, Nordic Capital, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Flutter (LON:FLTRF) Entertainment
Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of Fanduel, Paddy Power , Betfair, and Sky Bet, will be one of the top FTSE 100 companies to watch as it publishes its financial results.
The numbers will come at a time when companies in the industry are under intense pressure. Entain (LON:ENT), the parent of Bwin, Ladbrokes, and Coral, has crashed from over 2,400p in 2021 to below 600p.
Similarly, Flutter Entertainment shares have fallen by over 17% from the highest level this year while DraftKings is down by over 36% from the YTD high.
The Flutter Entertainment share price has risen by over 7.8% from its lowest point this week after Entain published strong results and boosted its guidance. It now expects its core profit to rise to between £1.04 billion and £1.09 billion, higher than the expected £1.02 billion.
The company also boosted its forward guidance, helped by the recent bets on the Euros games and the Olympics.
In its most recent results, Flutter said that the number of average monthly players rose by 11% in the first quarter to 13.7 million. Revenue rose by 16% to over $3.39 billion while its adjusted EBITDA jumped to $514 million.
For the year, Flutter Entertainment expects its US revenue to be $6 billion and its adjusted EBITDA being $710 million. Ex-US, revenue will be $7.8 billion.
Aviva (LON:AV)
Aviva, one of the top UK insurance companies, has been a bit volatile in the past few weeks. Its stock initially soared to the year-to-date high of 504p in July and then retreated sharply to 448p on Monday. It has now pared back some of those losses and was trading at 484p on Friday.
The next key catalyst for the Aviva share price will be its financial results scheduled on Wednesday. These results will show whether the company’s business continued doing well in the second quarter.
The most recent results showed that the company’s general insurance premiums rose by 16% to £2.7 billion, helped by the UK, where they soared to £1.7 billion and Canada, where they rose to £0.9 billion. Irs protection and health sales rose by 5% while its wealth net inflows jumped by £2.7 billion.
These results will come a week after Legal & General, another insurer, published its results. It increased its dividend by 5% even after its profits remained flat in the first half of the year.
Aviva is one of my best UK stock because of the ongoing turnaround efforts under Amanda Blanc and its strong dividend record. It pays a 6.91% dividend yield, higher than most FTSE 100 companies.
Admiral Group (LON:ADML)
The Admiral Group share price has moved in a narrow range in the past few months. It was trading at 2,650p, down by 5.45% from its highest point this year and 5.4% above its lowest point in July.
Admiral Group will be in the spotlight next week as it publishes its half-year financial results. In its most recent results, the company said that its profit before tax rose by 23% to £443 million. Its EPS rose by 17% to 111.2p while its return on equity jumped to 36%.
Most of these results were driven by the UK insurance and Admiral Money and offset by a big drop in US insurance and Admiral Pioneer.
These results will provide more colour about its business this year and what the management expects. They will also reveal the impact of its recent acquisition of RSA Direct Home and Pet Insurance rights in a £82 million deal.
The results will also come as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) started an investigation on the so-called guaranteed asset protection (Gap) insurance.
This article first appeared on Invezz.com
