Shaftesbury scraps final dividend, Pennon on track in first half

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The FTSE 100 is expected to open 24 points higher on Friday, having closed down 1.3% at 5,822.78 on Thursday.

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West End landlord Shaftesbury scrapped its final dividend as it said almost half of rents due for the second half had been waived or were still due. The company which owns 16-acres of prime shopping and retail property in the heart of the capital, said £13m in rent had been waived for the six months to September 28, with a further £15.1 outstanding by September 11 as the Covid-19 lockdowns hit revenue.

Pennon said it was on track to report first-half results in line with its own expectations and was considering the best use of funds from the sale of its waste management business. The FTSE 100 water company said the impact of Covid-19 was broadly in line with its early estimate for a £10m reduction in net revenue for the current financial year. Pennon said its results for the six months to the end of September were resilient.

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Norfolk, Wiltshire and Cornwall have emerged as hotspots for properties on sale at £1m or more, as wealthy buyers hunt for larger homes near the sea or in the countryside. Traditionally, more expensive homes have taken far longer to sell than properties in the wider market, but the race for more space and leafier locations as more people work from home in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a sales boom in the £1m price bracket, according to the UK’s biggest property website, Rightmove. - Guardian

Londoners are increasingly looking for jobs outside the capital as the city’s economy stalls, one of the UK’s largest recruitment sites has found, raising the prospect of a wave of “reverse commuters” or a continued exodus of residents. Figures from Indeed, based on millions of job adverts and searches, show that on 18 September, the number of posts advertised in London was down by 55% on the same date in 2019. - Guardian

The ravaged hospitality industry faces thousands of job losses and a massive wave of closures after bosses warned that Rishi Sunak’s latest rescue scheme will not stop them laying off staff. Pub and restaurant chiefs said they have no option but to go ahead with mass redundancies in the face of draconian measures to control coronavirus, despite the Chancellor’s new wage subsidy for part-time workers. - Telegraph

Google is under pressure to crack down on adverts for financial scams online after the City regulator called on the internet giant to “step up to the plate”. Charles Randell, chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority, urged the American search engine yesterday to do more to tackle the adverts. He said that more than half of the first page of results generated by a Google search for high-return investments were quite clearly scams, adding: “Whatever Google is doing, so far it’s not working.” - Telegraph

Telecoms bosses have warned that the government risks missing its ambitious target of delivering “gigabit” broadband speeds to all parts of the UK by 2025. Boris Johnson has put pressure on the industry to accelerate investment in upgrading infrastructure to faster full-fibre broadband networks to boost Britain’s digital economy. - Telegraph

US close

Stocks on Wall Street finished slightly higher on Thursday, after weekly jobless claims figures that some economists said showed that the jobs market was set to stall in October.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session ip 0.2% at 26,815.44, the S&P 500 added 0.3% to 3,246.59, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.37% firmer at 10,672.27.

“Initial jobless claims are no longer falling; they have probably been flat since early August,” said Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist Ian Shepherdson.

“Small business employment now seems to be falling outright, with no prospect of a turnaround.

“August durable goods orders likely were flattered by a drop in cancellations of aircraft orders.”

On top of the jobs data, some analysts believed that further income support for the unemployed from Capitol Hill was unlikely until February, after the election.