9th Feb 2021 11:02
(Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Tuesday.
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COMPANIES
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Ocado Group said annual revenue jumped by a third, helped by virus-boosted demand for online grocery purchases. Ocado posted GBP2.33 billion in revenue for the financial year that ended November 29, up 33% from GBP1.76 billion. This was slightly short of the GBP2.35 billion expected by the market, according to the company-compiled consensus. Ocado's statutory pretax loss narrowed to GBP44.0 million from GBP214.5 million, with the FTSE 100 company benefiting from a GBP104.6 million gain from exceptional items, swung from a GBP94.1 million hit in financial 2019. The boost from exceptional items this year came from insurance proceeds from a fire at its Andover, England customer fulfilment centre. Before exceptional items, Ocado's pretax loss widened to GBP148.6 million from GBP120.4 million. For the current year, Ocado said annual revenue growth is "highly dependent on length of Covid-19 restrictions".
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Package holiday operator Tui posted a sharp first-quarter loss, succumbing to European travel restrictions, but hopes for an end to these curbs around Easter. The Anglo-German company reported an 88% revenue plunge in its first quarter ended December 31. Revenue came in at EUR468.1 million from EUR3.85 billion. Its underlying loss before interest and tax stretched to EUR698.6 million from EUR146.7 million. The dramatic revenue drop was "as a result of extended travel restrictions across our key European markets during November and December 2020", Tui explained.
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Bellway reported record output in its financial first half, as the housing sector was spared from the two most recent UK Covid-19 lockdowns. Bellway said it completed 5,656 new homes in the six months to January 31. This was a 6.3% annual improvement and also "record first half volume output" for the housebuilder. Bellway said first-half revenue was up 12% year-on-year to GBP1.72 billion. Bellway said its order book stands at 5,889 homes worth GBP1.63 billion, up from 4,598 homes worth GBP1.16 billion a year ago.
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G4S said its continuing businesses stayed strong in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the annual revenue value of its contracts increased. The London-listed security services firm said its continuing businesses "maintained their resilience though the balance of the year", achieving a solid underlying fourth quarter performance with revenue in-line with trends highlighted at the nine-month mark. Profit before interest, tax, and amortisation margins also "held up well" in the final quarter of 2020. G4S reported "very strong" net cash flow generation, ending 2020 with its net debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation ratio well within its 2.0 to 2.5 times target. G4S said its 2020 new and retained contract wins has an annual revenue value of GBP3.0 billion, up from GBP2.5 billion in 2019.
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St Modwen Properties said its full-year results were hit by the Covid-19 health crisis, despite a "marked improvement" in the second half, but it still raised its dividend. Net asset value per share fell 12% to 427.70 pence at the end of November from 484.2p a year ago, though the Birmingham-based property investor and developer noted 1.1% growth in the second half of the year. Net rental and other income fell to GBP31.2 million in the year that ended November 30 from GBP40.1 million in financial 2019. Adjusted EPRA earnings per share fell to 9.9p from 17.4p, which the firm said was "due to temporary Covid-19 disruption of income". The company declared a total dividend of 5.0p for the year, up 28% from 3.9p in the 2019 financial year.
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MARKETS
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Asian equities posted solid gains on Tuesday but blue chip share prices in Europe were slightly lower on Tuesday as "investor enthusiasm is much more muted, and perhaps a little more cautious", CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson noted. Ocado shares were down 3.6%, the worst-performing London-listed large-cap. US futures were lower on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all called 0.1% lower, ahead of annual results from social networking site Twitter and second-quarter results from technology firm Cisco Systems.
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FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,515.49
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 21,154.53
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 1,211.34
GBP: up at USD1.3772 (USD1.3740)
EUR: up at USD1.2110 (USD1.2050)
Gold: up at USD1,844.90 per ounce (USD1,836.80)
Oil (Brent): up at USD60.78 a barrel (USD60.32)
(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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All travellers arriving in the UK will have to take two coronavirus tests in a fresh attempt to prevent mutant strains entering the country under new rules to be announced this week. The Department for Health & Social Care said the move was designed to provide a "further level of protection" enabling the authorities to track new cases more effectively. It is expected that people isolating at home will be told they must get a test two and eight days into their 10-day quarantine period. It comes after it was confirmed last week that UK nationals returning from 33 "red list" countries would be required to quarantine in closely monitored government-designated hotels, where they would have to take two tests.
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UK government advisers will set out who they think should be next in line for the Covid-19 jab in the coming weeks, one expert has said. The Joint Committee on Vaccination & Immunisation is currently in discussions over who they believe should be next in line after the initial priority groups. Asked who would be next to be vaccinated after the top nine priority groups, JCVI member Adam Finn told BBC Breakfast: "That discussion is ongoing at the moment and of course it goes beyond just medicine and public health as to who society values most and who they think are most important." He added: "But over the coming few weeks we're making those plans and I think they will have to be announced by the end of February or early March so that we know what we're doing next."
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German trade data for December was a mixed bag, according to numbers on Tuesday, with official figures showing the country's exports rose but its trade surplus disappointed market expectations. Numbers from Destatis showed Germany's trade surplus rose to EUR16.1 billion in December from EUR15.9 billion in November. According to consensus cited by FXStreet, Germany's trade surplus was forecast to rise to EUR16.3 billion in December, so the December figure fell short of expectations. Exports were 0.1% higher monthly and 2.7% higher annually at EUR100.7 billion. This figure topped market expectations of a 1% monthly decline. For the whole of 2020, exports fell 9.3% to EUR1.20 billion. Imports fell 0.1% monthly but climbed 3.5% annually to EUR85.9 billion. Imports for the whole of 2020 were 7.1% lower at EUR1.03 billion.
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The Senate will launch Donald Trump's historic second impeachment trial on Tuesday, with lawyers for the former president insisting he is not guilty of inciting mob violence at the Capitol to overturn the election. Prosecutors, however, say he must be convicted of the "most grievous constitutional crime" even though he is gone from the White House. Trump faces a sole charge of incitement to insurrection over the January 6 Capitol siege, an attack that stunned the nation and the world after he encouraged a rally crowd to "fight like hell" for his presidency. Rioters stormed the building trying to stop the certification of President-Elect Joe Biden's victory, in an insurrection in which five people lost their lives.
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