By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – At 07:37GMT, FTSE 100 futures are trading lower by 0.2% at 7273.
In FX markets, GBP/USD is trading at 1.3563, EUR/GBP is trading at 0.8547. The US Dollar Index is down 0.1%.
Today’s calendar highlights include German ZEW, US PPI, WASDE report.
Stocks
Rolls-Royce (LON:RR) - Secured funding for its Small Modular Reactor business from a consortium of private investors and the UK government.
Associated British Foods (LON:ABF) - FY group revenue up 1% on constant currency basis to £13.884 billion. Adjusted operating profit up 2% to £1.011 billion. Total dividend of 34.3p per share declared and proposed: special dividend 13.8p and final dividend 20.5p. Expected significant increase in sales should lead to a sharp improvement in Primark's adjusted operating margin, recovering to above 10%.
DCC (LON:DCC) - H1 revenue up 29.7% on a constant currency basis to £7.518 billion. Adjusted operating profit up 15.5% to £195.8 million. Boosts interim dividend by 7.5% to 55.85 pence per share. Continues to expect that the year ending 31 March 2022 will be another year of strong operating profit growth and continued development activity, and in line with current market consensus expectations.
Persimmon (LON:PSN) - Average private new home sales reservation rate per site circa 16% ahead of 2019. Expect to deliver circa 10% increase in legal completions in 2021. £1.15bn of forward sales reserved beyond the current year.
Vistry (LON:VTYV) - Average weekly private sales rate for the year to date increased to 0.77. Firmly on track to deliver full year profit before tax for FY21 of circa £345 million and target of circa £225 million net cash at year end. Positive outlook for FY22 with the Group making good progress towards its medium term targets.
Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) - Partnered with Norsk Hydro to identify opportunities to produce and supply green hydrogen.
Direct Line (LON:DLGD) - Q3 motor gross written premiums down 1.4% to £440.9 million. Home down 1.1% to £154.9 million. Total group up 0.7% to £857.1 million. Experienced weather event claims in Q3 of £7.5 million in Home and £9.5 million in Commercial. For 2021, following lower than normal claims frequency in Motor and strong prior-year reserve releases, continue to expect a combined operating ratio in the range of 90% to 92%, normalised for weather.
Watches Of Switzerland (LON:WOSG) - H1 revenue up 44.6% to £586.2 million. H1 FY22 Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be £81.0 million to £83.0 million. Raises FY revenue guidance to £1.15-1.20 billion from £1.05-1.10 billion.
Draper Esprit (LON:GROW) - Has changed name to Molten Ventures.
Savills (LON:SVS) - UK business likely to materially exceed earlier expectations for 2021 and the outturn for 2019 following strong trading since June. The Group is likely to achieve overall profits materially ahead of 2019 for the current year, before a resumption of more normalised trading and cost dynamics in 2022.
Grafton Group (LON:GFTU_u) - Group total revenue from continuing operations increased 28.3% to £1.76 billion in 10 months to 31st October. Now expect full year Group adjusted operating profit from continuing operations will be in the range of £265 million to £270 million, compared to current consensus Analysts' forecasts of £256 million.
Vivo Energy (LON:VVO) - CEO Christian Chammas intends to retire in 2022. Stanislas ("Stan") Mittelman has been appointed Chief Executive Officer Designate, will join the company in early 2022 and expected to become CEO in March 2022.
Diversified Energy Company (LON:DEC) - Will deploy an additional 500 methane emissions detection devices to its Appalachian upstream field operations team as part of the company's ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship.
DiscoverIE Group (LON:DSCV) - Sells Custom Supply distribution business, Acal BFi, for total cash consideration of £50 million.
Oxford Instruments (LON:OXIG) - H1 revenue up 26.8% on a constant currency basis to £170.1 million. Adjusted operating profit up 28.0% to £30.6 million. Boosts interim dividend by 7.3% to 4.4 pence per share. Expectations for further progress in the year are unchanged.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (LON:ONT) - Awarded new 36-month contract with G42 Laboratory for $68 million. Group is now introducing guidance for LSRT revenue of £135-145 million for FY22. The Group is also upgrading its LSRT revenue guidance for FY23 to £170-190 million, compared to its previous expectation of £165-175 million.
3I Infrastructure (LON:3IN) - Generated total return of 10.6% on operating NAV for first half of the year. Announced interim dividend of 5.225 pence per share.
BT (LON:BT) - Upgraded to buy from hold at Berenberg.