Old Mutual posts sharp rise in profits, Domino's buys back share of London franchises
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 35 points lower on Friday, having closed down 1.44% to 7,389.94 on Thursday.
Stocks to watch
Old Mutual posted a sharp 37% rise in adjusted pre-tax profits to £969m, helped in part by £108m of proceeds from the sale of its OMAM unit although it did incur in a goodwill impairment charge of £71m linked to UAP-Old Mutual in East Africa. On an IFRS basis, profits before tax surged from £534m in the year-ago period to £940m, for earnings per share of 10.6p, with the latter up by 33%. Despite that, its net asset value per share decreased from 228.6p to 220.1p.
Domino's Pizza Group announced the creation of a partnership with its largest franchisee in London on Friday. The FTSE 250 company said that, as part of the transaction, it agreed to pay £24m for a 75% stake in a newly-formed company, whose assets will consist of all the franchisee's operations being 25 existing Domino's stores in London.
The Restaurant Group announced the appointment of Kirk Davis as Chief Financial Officer on Friday before the market open. Davis arrives having spent the previous three years in the same position for fellow FTSE 250-listed firm Greene King.
Pub operator and brewing company Greene King announced on Friday that Richard Smothers would be joining the firm in December 2017, and joining the board as chief financial officer in February 2018. The FTSE 250 firm said Smothers was joining from retailer Mothercare, where he was chief financial officer since March 2015.
Newspaper round-up
Four supermarkets have withdrawn products from their shelves as it emerged that 700,000 eggs from Dutch farms implicated in a contamination scare had been distributed to Britain. The Food Standards Agency said the number of contaminated eggs estimated to have reached the UK was far higher than the 21,000 first supposed, and that egg salads from Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda, sandwiches from Morrisons, and sandwich fillers from Waitrose had been withdrawn. - The Guardian
Rock-bottom interest rates and a booming jobs market have helped to push the number of mortgages in arrears to a record low with repossessions also at their lowest level. Mortgages in arrears fell to 88,200 in the second quarter, the lowest since records began in 1994, according UK Finance, previously the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The figure means that 0.8% of the 11 million mortgages outstanding in the UK are behind on at least 2.5% of the amount owned. - The Times
Thousands of Asda workers are facing redundancy or a dramatic cut in their working hours as Britain’s third-largest supermarket chain looks to cut costs. Asda has begun a consultation with 3,257 employees in 18 underperforming stores, singled out as overstaffed relative to their current sales performance. - The Guardian
Norwegian investor aims to offer a lifeline to the debt-laden publisher of the i newspaper before it falls into hands of US hedge funds, with plans use its online audiences as a launchpad for digital start-ups. Christen Ager-Hanssen, whose private equity firm Custos owns the Metro freesheet in Sweden, bought more than 5% of Johnston Press on Wednesday. The move sent Johnston Press shares climbing 13pc today. - The Daily Telegraph
US close
Simmering tensions around the Korean peninsula saw Wall Street steer a wide berth around stocks amid the still unsettled geopolitical waters on Thursday
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.93% lower at 21,844.01, the S&P 500 lost 1.45% to 2,438.21, and the Nasdaq 100 was 2.22% softer at 5,788.19.
At the same time, the Chicago Board of Options Exchange's options volatility index, or VIX, was up by 44.37%.
Commodity investors were looking at a positive start to the day earlier, with both gold and crude oil futures wanted.
Oil prices finished lower, however, with Brent crude last down 1.82% at $51.76 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate losing 2.31% to $48.44.
The price was boosted earlier by reports the world's thirst for black oil would reach 1.37m barrels a day in 2017, OPEC said in its Oil Market Report for August.