Entain full-year net gaming revenue comes in flat, Sage trades in line

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 29 points higher on Thursday, having closed up 0.41% on Wednesday at 6,740.39.

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Ladbrokes and Coral owner Entain reported flat full-year net gaming revenue (NGR), with online gambling offsetting the closures of betting shops due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The company, which this week rejected an £8bn takeover bid from MGM, said UK retail NGR fell 36%, while total online was up 27%. Full year 2020 group core earnings were expected to be in the range of £825m - £845m, “despite the impact to profitability from enforced retail closures”, the company said on Thursday.

Sage said it traded in line with expectations in the first quarter as recurring revenue grew strongly. Total revenue rose 1.4% to £447m in the three months to the end of December from a year earlier as recurring revenue increased 4.7% to £408m.

Ibstock said on Thursday that it traded well through the fourth quarter, with both solid clay brick and concrete sales volumes “modestly ahead” of the prior year. The FTSE 250 brick maker said the “strong recovery” in market conditions through the second half enabled it to achieve revenues of around £315m for the full year, down by 23% on 2019, with second half performance down approximately 10% year-on-year.

Newspaper round-up

Saga has become the first UK tour operator to tell cruise and holiday customers that they must be vaccinated to travel with them this summer. The over-50s travel firm, which has reported a surge in bookings since the vaccination programme was announced, is taking reservations on condition that customers are fully inoculated, with two shots where necessary, at least 14 days before departure. Passengers will also need to take a Covid test at the departure terminal. - Guardian

Parliament’s spending watchdog has called on the government to explain and fix issues with the tax system that have denied whole groups of freelancers and self-employed workers financial support during the coronavirus pandemic. The powerful cross-party public accounts committee (PAC) said some of the workforce had “not had a penny” from the government’s multi billion-pound support schemes despite repeat lockdowns blocking many from work, while some large companies had received taxpayer support and paid dividends to shareholders and high salaries to executives. - Guardian

Supermarket workers are battling a surge of violence as customers vent their rage over a new crackdown on face coverings, the boss of Co-op Food has said. Demands for staff to enforce mask-wearing and social distancing rules have created a major flashpoint for “abuse, threats and violence”, Jo Whitfield said, with thousands of incidents every week. - Telegraph

New offices and commercial properties will have to install better ventilation systems to help to reduce the spread of airborne diseases such as Covid-19, under government proposals. Offices would have to have systems that can provide fresh air at 50 per cent higher rates than the existing minimum standards. This would enable an “increased ventilation rate to be used during a period when infection rates are raised, such as in a future pandemic”, according to the consultation documents. - The Times

The founder of Monzo is to leave the challenger bank altogether at the end of the month, staff were told yesterday. Tom Blomfield was chief executive until May last year when he assumed the newly created role of president and resigned from the Monzo board. Founded in 2015, Monzo is one of the UK’s leading fintech start-ups and seeks to disrupt the retail banking industry. Its app allows customers to track their spending and to hold savings in different pots. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed in positive territory on Wednesday, as new president Joe Biden was sworn into office.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.83% at 31,188.38, the S&P 500 added 1.39% to 3,851.85, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.97% to 13,457.25.

The Dow closed 257.86 points higher on Wednesday, extending gains recorded on Donald Trump's last full day in the Oval Office.

Wednesday's primary focus was Biden's inauguration as the 46th president of the United States, with him making a speech focussing on the need to bring the US together following the violent riot on Capitol Hill earlier in the month.

CMC Markets analyst David Madden said traders were in risk-on mode, given Biden’s keenness to stimulate the US economy.