Hunting trading in line, Kingfisher appoints new CEO

London open

The FTSE 100 was called to open six points higher at 7,422.

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Hunting said trading is in line with expectations, with interim revenue and earnings expected to come in ahead of the same period last year after the increase in the West Texas Intermediate oil price from $45 to $58 per barrel provided some improved stability within the US market.

B&Q and Castorama owner Kingfisher has appointed Thierry Garnier - the chief executive officer of Carrefour Asia - as its new CEO.

Garnier, whose start date is yet to be finalised, will take over from Veronique Laury.

Serco said it expects 2019 revenue to be around the top end of its previously stated guidance of £2.9bn to £3bn, as it maintained its guidance for underlying trading profit of around £105m.

Chief executive Rupert Soames said: "The revenue growth seen in the second half of 2018 has continued, and profits and margins are both well up on the first half of last year. Order intake in the first half of this year has been very strong at over £3bn, already exceeding our revenue forecast for the whole of 2019."

Newspaper round-up

United Airlines has become the latest carrier to extend its ban on using the Boeing 737 Max after the US aviation regulator said it had identified a new potential risk with the plane. As the Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday that Boeing must address the new issue before the jet can return to service, United joined American and Southwest in continuing to ground the plane through August. – Guardian

Starbucks’ UK-based European business paid just £18.3m in tax last year, while paying £348m in royalty dividend payments for the use of the brand to the coffee giant’s parent company in Seattle. The company, which has faced years of heated criticism for paying very little tax in the UK, reported on Thursday that its European, Middle Eastern and Asian business (EMEA) paid $23.6m (£18.3m) in tax on $230m of royalty payment earnings in the year to the end of September 2018. – Guardian

Jeremy Hunt’s spending plans risk “rising” national debt and no end to austerity, should he become prime minister, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said. Ideas for the public finances mooted by the Foreign Secretary, who is one of two contenders for the Tory party leadership, are “expensive” and would threaten to put the UK further into the red, according to the economic think tank. – Telegraph

Housebuilders could be forced to sign up to a code of conduct if they want to benefit from the revised Help to Buy scheme. In an interview with The Times, James Brokenshire, the housing secretary, said that the government was looking at “codes of practice” or “quality requirements” that housebuilders would need to meet to access the revised scheme, which will start in 2021. – The Times

The founder of Autonomy has accused Hewlett Packard of “destroying” the British software company through a “botched” integration process and bitter internal feuding. Mike Lynch said that the 2011 acquisition had been doomed from the start because of the incompetence of Meg Whitman, chief executive of HP at that time, and the company’s senior management. The entrepreneur, 53, said that he has been made a “scapegoat” for the failed acquisition, which HP has blamed on an alleged accounting fraud said to have been masterminded by Autonomy’s founder and a close associate. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday ahead of a key meeting between Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the week.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.04% at 26,536.82, while the S&P 500 closed 0.12% weaker at 2,913.78. The Nasdaq Composite, however, picked up 0.32% in the session to 7,909.97 on the back of a tech rally early in the session.