Hochschild sees annual profits double, Moneysupermarket looking for new chief executive

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 58 points higher on Wednesday, having closed down 0.69% at 7,382.01 on Tuesday.

Stocks to watch

Higher precious metals prices helped South America-focused miner Hochschild double annual profits. The company on Wednesday said pre-tax profits rose to $76.8m from $38.4m on a 7% increase in revenue to $755.7m.

Moneysupermarket is looking for a new chief executive after Mark Lewis told the price comparison business he wanted to leave. Lewis has run the FTSE 250 company since 2017. The firm said he wanted to take his career in a different direction. Moneysupermarket said no date had been set for Lewis's departure and that he wanted to make sure there was a smooth handover to his replacement.

Avation announced on Wednesday that two of its existing ATR 72-600 aircraft have been subleased by Scotland-based Loganair, and would start flying in the coming weeks. The London-listed firm said the ATR 72-600 aircraft are being subleased from regional airline Flybe, and would remain with Loganair until just before the end of the leases with Flybe.

Newspaper round-up

Jaguar Land Rover has warned it could run out of car parts at its British factories at the end of next week, as the coronavirus halts supplies from China. Britain’s biggest carmaker added its voice to a chorus of companies counting the cost of the outbreak, as the epidemic weighs heavily on international business and trade. – Guardian

The new chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is being urged to include measures to protect access to physical money as part of the March budget, as experts warn the UK’s cash system has edged closer to collapse. Authors of the Access to Cash Review are calling for extra safeguards to support the UK’s cash infrastructure, which has come under severe strain in the 12 months since the original report was published last March. – Guardian

Oil giant BP is under growing pressure over its stake in Rosneft after the US slapped sanctions on the Russian company for allegedly propping up the Venezuelan regime. London-listed BP owns nearly 20pc of state-owned Rosneft under a deal dating back to 2012 which gives BP two seats on Rosneft's board. - Telegraph

A market-moving speech by the Bank of England’s deputy governor was sent to a foreign exchange trader more than an hour before it was delivered, it can be revealed, highlighting the scale of a security breach at the institution. Livesquawk, a market news provider that had been accredited by the Bank and other institutions to receive early copies of sensitive material, used a Skype chat to post a speech by Ben Broadbent to a market trader an hour and 16 minutes before the deputy governor for monetary policy made it. – The Times

The £360 billion retail property sector has joined calls for the government to urgently overhaul the business rates system. Revo, which represents hundreds of retailers, high street landlords and consultants, has written to the Treasury asking it to accelerate the “fundamental” review of business rates promised at the Queen’s Speech in December. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street finished mixed on Tuesday, as the ongoing coronavirus outbreak took its toll on Apple and other stocks exposed to China's manufacturing sector.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session down 0.56% at 29,232.19 and the S&P 500 was off 0.29% at 3,370.29, as traders returned to the floor after the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday.

Going the other way, the Nasdaq Composite managed to eke out gains of 0.02% to reach a fresh record close of 9,732.74, after it turned positive late in afternoon trading.

Apple was the stock on everyone’s radar during the session, finishing down 1.83% after it told investors on Monday evening that it no longer expected to meet its quarterly revenue guidance.

The California-based consumer technology giant pointed to weakened production levels and lower demand in China in the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

With market participants continuing to assess the potential economic fallout stemming from the outbreak, China's National Health Commission said on Tuesday that an additional 98 deaths had occurred nationwide, with 1,886 new cases of the coronavirus taking the total to 72,346 confirmed cases.