Bellway sees record first-half volume, Burberry sales hit by coronavirus

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The FTSE 100 is expected to open 17 points lower on Friday, having closed up 0.3% at 7,504.79 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

House builder Bellway reported record first half volume output, with the completion of 5,321 new homes, a rise of 6.3%, as it said full year profits would be in line with estimates. “The pricing environment remained firm, although there remain ongoing challenges in relation to higher priced homes,” Bellway said on Friday. “In addition, there continues to be upward pressure on construction costs across the wider sector. Bellway is implementing a number of ongoing initiatives in order to help mitigate these cost increases.”

Burberry said the coronavirus was affecting its sales in China and Hong Kong and that more than a third of its stores in mainland China were closed. The luxury goods company said 24 of its 64 mainland China stores were closed. Its other outlets are operating with reduced hours and customer footfall is down significantly.

HgCapital Trust announced an investment in multi-asset electronic trading technology company smartTrade Technologies on Friday. The FTSE 250 firm said it would invest around £17.5m in smartTrade, along with with other institutional clients of Hg through the Hg Mercury 2 Fund.

Newspaper round-up

The new chairman of the John Lewis Partnership has warned of potential store closures and job losses as part of a plan to shore up its finances. Sharon White told the employee-owned group’s staff council that it faced making “difficult decisions about stores and about jobs” during what was its “most challenging period” since its inception in the 1920s. Despite the hard work of employees, trading results were disappointing and not generating enough profit to invest in the business, she told the meeting. – Guardian

The government is preparing to reverse plans put forward last year to cut import tariffs on most goods coming to the UK under proposals for post-Brexit trade agreements. The Department for International Trade has opted to simplify the current regime rather than abolish large parts of it, as Theresa May’s government planned under a temporary scheme to follow a no-deal Brexit. – Guardian

Billionaire entrepreneur Peter Hargreaves is to sell £500m-worth of shares in the business he co-founded, saying the size of his investment in the firm had left him with “an awful lot of eggs in one basket”. The prominent Brexit supporter, 73, said the sale of around 6pc of the shares in Hargreaves Lansdown, which was being conducted by Barclays and Numis on Thursday night after the market closed, was part of long-term financial planning to diversify assets. – Telegraph

Factories across Europe will have to shut within weeks if the coronavirus outbreak continues to disrupt their supply chains, analysts have said as the economic fallout grows. Fiat Chrysler, the Italian-American carmaker, said yesterday that it could shut one of its plants on the continent as industry braces for a “significant” increase in disruption and multinationals scramble to respond. – The Times

Shares in Hurricane Energy fell by 17 per cent after it warned it may have to plug and abandon a well to the west of the Shetland Islands. The AIM-listed energy group struck oil at the Lincoln Crestal well last summer and suspended it with plans to hook it up to an existing production vessel this year, subject to regulatory approvals. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street finished in the green on Thursday, after China announced it would lower tariffs on some US exports and amid optimism ahead of the monthly non-farm payrolls data due out the next day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.3% at 29,379.77, the S&P 500 added 0.33% to 3,345.78, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.67% firmer at 9,572.15.

According to China's Ministry of Finance, 10.0% tariffs on $75.0bn-worth of American exports will be halved, starting from 14 February.

Some market observers said Beijing's latest move would further buttress global growth prospects in the face of the coronavirus with an interest rate cut in the Philippines overnight also serving to boost investor sentiment.

The latter was on top of rate cuts out of Brazil and Thailand in the previous session.