Source: Sharecast
Stocks to watch
UK lender Lloyds Bank on Thursday said annual profit fell 20.4%, worse than expected, and set aside an extra £700m to cover potential claims against motor finance commission deals. Pre-tax profit came in at £5.97bn, compared to £7.5bn a year earlier and consensus estimates of £6.39bn. Net interest margin – the difference between savings and loan rates – fell 16 basis points to 2.95%.
Centrica reported a decline in full-year adjusted EBITDA to £2.3bn on Thursday, from £3.5bn in 2023, with adjusted operating profit falling to £1.6bn amid lower commodity prices and reduced profitability in energy storage. The FTSE 100 energy supplier maintained a strong balance sheet, returning £0.7bn to shareholders through dividends and buybacks, while increasing its full-year dividend by 13% to 4.5p per share. Looking ahead, Centrica reaffirmed its 2025 outlook, targeting stable performance across its key business segments and announcing a further £500m share buyback extension, with plans to raise its dividend to 5.5p per share.
Newspaper round-up
British Steel should get an extra £200m from the government to support it in keeping the UK’s two remaining blast furnaces open until electric replacements are built, according to a proposal put forward by unions. Chinese-owned British Steel has said it will replace its polluting blast furnaces at Scunthorpe with electric arc furnaces, which can be used to make much cleaner, recycled steel. – Guardian
Britain’s crumbling public services are bad for business, and spending more taxpayers’ money to fix them is a pro-growth policy, the pensions minister, Torsten Bell, has argued. Rachel Reeves has been accused by business lobby groups of clobbering the economy with the £25bn increase in employer national insurance contributions imposed in her October budget. – Guardian
Microsoft has invented a new state of matter separate to solids, liquids and gases in a scientific breakthrough the technology giant says could create the world’s most powerful computer. The company unveiled a quantum computer chip on Wednesday that generates new types of particles existing in a “topological” state. Topological states have previously only existed in theory and require a delicate combination of magnetic fields, new materials and temperatures near absolute-zero to bring about. The state does not occur naturally and its existence has only been made possible through advances in quantum physics. – Telegraph
The US arm of KPMG has removed reports on its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from its website after similar programmes were criticised by President Trump. The accounting and consulting firm has withdrawn years of annual “transparency reports” from its website that detailed the representation of women and minorities across the organisation. Similar reports produced for KPMG’s UK business remain available to view online. – The Times
The chief financial officer of John Wood Group has resigned after it emerged that his professional qualifications had been misstated. Arvind Balan said it had been an “honest oversight” that he was described as a chartered accountant rather than a certified practising accountant. Balan, 44, was hired in November 2023 and formally joined the energy engineering consultancy in April last year. He was described as a chartered accountant in official announcements by the company. – The Times
US close
Stocks finished higher on Wednesday with the S&P 500 booking another record close, though gains were only modest as ongoing uncertainty around trade policies kept a lid on risk appetite.
The Dow finished 0.16% higher, while the Nasdaq rose 0.07%, edging closer to its peak registered in December.
The S&P 500, however, gained 0.24% to a new high of 6,144.15 – surpassing a previous record set on Tuesday.
Concerns regarding sticky inflation and Donald Trump's trade policies remained in focus on Wednesday after the president floated the idea of imposing a 25% tariff on automotive, semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports into the US.
The news caused stocks in Europe – and Germany in particular which is heavily reliant on its auto sector – to drop sharply on Wednesday.
