Profits slip at Mulberry, while Biffa reports steady growth

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 21 points lower on Wednesday, having closed 0.43% lower at 7,703.81 on Tuesday.

Stocks to watch

British luxury brand Mulberry posted a drop in annual profit on Wednesday on the back of start-up costs for its operations in Asia, as it announced a new business agreement in South Korea. In the year to 31 March 2018, reported pre-tax profit fell to £6.9m from £7.9m after accounting for the costs relating to Asia, but revenue edged up 1% to £169.7m. Retail sales rose 3%, with the UK broadly flat and international sales 20% higher.

Glencore’s Katanga Mining subsidiary has settled a legal dispute with its state-owned joint venture partner in Democratic Republic of the Congo that threatened to dissolve Katanga’s DRC operating subsidiary Kamoto Copper Company (KCC). Katanga has agreed with its partner, La Générale des Carrières et des Mines (Gécamines), that $5.6bn (£4.2bn) of KCC’s $9bn debt will be converted into new KCC equity. The effect is that, from 1 January 2018, KCC has $3.45bn of debt to KML Group.

Waste management company Biffa reported 10% growth in annual underlying profit and said it had taken action to cope with the "new norm" of tighter Chinese import regulations on recyclable commodities. In the 53 weeks to end-March, the group generated £977.7m of revenue, up 8.4% with equal contributions from organic growth and acquisitions, feeding through to underlying EBITDA up 8.9% to £150m and underlying operating profit up 10% to £81.2m.

Independent video games developer and label Team17 announced on Wednesday that Overcooked 2, the sequel to the double BAFTA-winning cooking game in the “chaotic co-op” genre, would launch on 7 August on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC platforms. The AIM-traded firm said the game was co-developed in partnership with indie developer Ghost Town Games, and the announcement of its launch was made at E3 - the industry conference currently being held in Los Angeles. The game is available immediately for pre-order.

Newspaper round-up

The senior PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant who audited BHS’s accounts ahead of its sale for £1 just a year before the department store chain collapsed is facing a 15-year ban and six-figure fine from the industry watchdog. Steve Denison, who spent more than 30 years at PwC according to his LinkedIn profile, becoming a partner, is understood to have been facing a £500,000 fine from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), reduced to £325,000 after he agreed to cooperate. - Guardian

Foreign entrepreneurs could find it easier to come to the UK to set up businesses after the government confirmed plans to introduce a new startup visa, which it said would begin welcoming people without a university education and improve the application process. The announcement came in the wake of Theresa May, the architect of the “hostile environment” immigration policy, defending her government’s response to the Windrush scandal. - Guardian

City firms must do more to abolish the "alpha-male" culture still prevalent in banks and finance, the powerful Treasury committee has said. In a wide-ranging report on women in finance published today, MPs call on firms to overhaul bonus negotiations and for more male bosses to “lead by example” by adopting flexible working. The committee said the “overwhelming reason” given by women for not wanting to progress up the ranks in finance firms was culture. – Telegraph

AT&T has been given the green light for its $85bn (£63bn) blockbuster takeover of Time Warner, rebuffing efforts to block the deal by the Trump administration. Judge Richard Leon said the proposed takeover could go ahead without any conditions, rejecting the US Justice Department's arguments that it would limit competition and mean higher prices for pay-TV subscribers. – Telegraph

Leading investors are to vote against the chairman of WPP and its executive pay in what is set to be a fiery annual shareholder meeting today. Several shareholders have revealed their opposition to the re-election of Roberto Quarta, chairman of the FTSE 100 advertising group, and to the group’s remuneration report before the meeting in London. – The Times

The former Canadian central banker who will lead an independent review into the supervision of the Co-op Bank before its near-collapse in 2013 will be paid £1,500 a day, excluding expenses. Mark Zelmer, whose appointment raised questions about potential conflicts as he has worked with the Bank of England in the past and is a former colleague of Mark Carney, will be given access to all privileged and confidential documents to help his review, the Bank has promised. – The Times

The chief executive of Serco will step up his attack on government procurement practices today, accusing civil servants of bullying private sector contractors into accepting uncommercial deals to deliver public services. Rupert Soames will warn MPs on the public accounts committee investigating the collapse of Carillion that the government’s treatment of contractors has wrecked its reputation as a fair customer. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street ended mostly higher on Tuesday as investors mulled over the US-North Korea agreement and looked ahead to the Federal Reserve policy announcement.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed flat at 25,320.73, but the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 2,786.85 and the Nasdaq finished up 0.6% at 7,703.79.

Investors were left feeling a little disappointed by the agreement made between the US and North Korea after Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un signed a document confirming that North Korea will begin dismantling its nuclear capabilities "very quickly".

Although Trump described the declaration as "very important" and "pretty comprehensive", analysts highlighted the lack of detail in terms of timing or checks on whether North Korea is making changes to its nuclear program.

Craig Erlam, chief market analyst at Oanda, said: "The Singapore summit with US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un went very smoothly and provided some optimism that a long-term peaceful solution can be found between the two countries."

"The lack of a response though may be a reflection of the fact that the agreement still lacks some detail and given the unpredictable and volatile nature of the two leaders, there's no guarantee that it won't run into significant difficulties," Erlam added.