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UK stocks were in the red on Wednesday after first quarter GDP fell 1.6%, revised down from 1.5%. By 11am, the FTSE 100 traded 0.7% lower at 7,038, with financials and energy stocks among the biggest fallers.
Travel and leisure stocks were also weak on the UK market as optimism wanes over the sector's ability to profit from summer holidays.
Trading in Asia was mixed with China's SE Composite index gaining 0.5% while Japan's Nikkei was down 0.1%.
Gold fell 0.2% to $1,758 per ounce.
Electrical goods retailer Dixons Carphone said full year revenues to 1 May grew 1% to £10.3 billion and the company returned to a profit of £33 million after last year's £140 million loss.
The dividend was resumed with the board proposing a 3p per share full-year payout. Online sales were up 114% to £3.4 billion.
The company said the start of its new financial year had seen continued strong trading in all its markets and touted ongoing progress with its omni-channel transformation. The shares gained 1.9% to 125.2p.
Train and bus company Stagecoach reported a 39% fall in annual profit after pandemic-related lockdowns and other restrictions weighed on sales.
Pre-tax profit for the year to May dropped to £24.7 million, down from £40.6 million year-on-year, as revenue dropped 35% to £928.2 million. Stagecoach declared no dividends for the year and the shares fell 0.8% to 81.45p.
In a trading update, outsourced services company Serco said it expected to report a more than 50% rise in first-half underlying profit. The company also upgraded free cash flow guidance to £300 million from £275 million.
It reiterated full-year guidance for revenues to be around £4.3 billion and underlying trading profit of approximately £200 million, up 30% in constant currencies. Despite the upgrade the shares dropped 1.2% to 133.9p.
Shares in pharmaceutical company Indivior jumped 7.4% to 156p after it raised annual guidance saying fiscal 2021 revenues and adjusted pre-tax income were now expected to be 'significantly' above the group's original guidance.
Net revenue was expected in a range of $705 million to $740 million, up from previous guidance of up to $625 million reflecting stronger sales of its opioid dependency treatment Sublocade.
Shares in advertising firm M&C Saatchi traded 8.4% higher at 160.46p after the company upgraded its annual guidance, citing a corporate restructure that saw it cut costs.
Pre-tax losses for 2020 dipped slightly to £8.5 million while revenues fell 12% to £225.4 million.
The company said it had traded ahead of expectations for first five months of 2021 and anticipated posting a headline pre-tax profit for the first half of more than £10 million.
Chrysalis Investments swung to a first-half profit as a strong performance from its portfolio companies boosted net asset value.
For the period covering 1 October 2020 to 31 March 2021, pre-tax profit was £197.4 million compared with a loss of £15.8 million a year earlier as net investment gains swung to £250 million from a loss of £14.2 million. Net asset value per share grew 28.1% to 206.15p. The shares fell 1.4% to 258.43p.
Shares in egg-free cake maker Cake Box gained 3.7% to 335p after the company said full-year pre-tax profit to 31 March jumped 11.8% to £4.2 million as revenues increased 16.9% to £21.9 million.