UK stocks traded higher on Tuesday, with the FTSE 100 lifting its head above its February peak as European and US long bond yields turned lower.
Sentiment was helped by German stocks making a new all-time high and US futures pointing sharply higher after losses overnight.
In the US, hot stock Gamestop jumped another 41% to $194.5 for fourth consecutive days of rises as investors piled into the shares once again.
Brent Crude dropped 0.4% to $67.8 a barrel while Gold prices were 0.9% higher at $1,698 an ounce. The pound was 0.5% higher against the US dollar at $1.389.
At midday the FTSE 100 index of leading shares was 46 points or 0.7% higher at 6,765 points with consumer stocks, financials and utilities leading the gains.
ULTRA UP BUT TALKS AVIATION DOWN
Shares in Defence contractor Ultra Electronics (ULE) flew 4.5% higher to £20.80 after it said pre-tax profit for the year through December increased 14% to £103.7 million, as revenue climbed 4.2% to £859.8 million.
The company declared a 5% increase in the full-year dividend to 56.9 pence per share. Ultra said it planned for revenue growth in 2021 but did not expect to see any improvement in commercial aerospace revenue until at least 2023.
In its maiden full-year results as an independent company wealth manager M&G (MNG) which was spun out of Prudential, reported full year adjusted pre-tax operating profit down 31% to £788 million despite assets under management and administration rising 4.4% to £367.2 billion.
The company said it remained committed its ambitious three-year £2.2 billion target for total capital generation to the end of 2022 and a policy of a stable or increasing dividend. M&G declared a full-year dividend of 12.23p per share. The shares gained 3.4% to 212p.
Shares in pizza chain Domino's Pizza (DOM) surged 9% to 338p after the company set out a new plant to grow its delivery business, targeting medium-term total system sales of £1.6 billion to £1.9 billion, supported by the opening of an additional 200 new stores.
Domino’s reported a 2.4% rise in full-year pre-tax profit to £101.2 million as like-for-like system sales rose 10.3% after the company incurred £9 million of Covid-19 related costs.
Strong working capital management saw free cash flow increase 73% to £99 million.
TOWERS SPIN-OFF
Telecom group Vodafone (VOD) said it had set a price range for the IPO (initial public offering) of its Vantage Towers mobile masts business that would value it at between €11.4 billion and €14.7 billion when it lists in Frankfurt.
The indicative price range was set at €22.50-to-€29 per share, with a base offer size of €2 billion.
Vodafone said there was flexibility to upsize the final offering by up to 40% to €2.8 billion. It also announced that two leading global investors had committed to providing a cornerstone investment of €950 million of shares at the offer price. The shares dipped 2.5% to 129p.
Broadcaster ITV (ITV) reported full-year pre-tax profit down 39% to £325 million as external revenue slipped 16% to £2.78 billion. ITV studios revenue fell 25% and broadcast revenue was down 8% following an 11% fall in advertising revenue.
The company was aiming to deliver around £100 million of annualised permanent overhead cost savings by 2022 (from 2019), compared to its previous guidance of £55 million to £60 million. Shares reversed their earlier losses of as much as 5% to trade up 2.8% at 125p.
Property investment company Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) warned that difficult operating conditions for its customers would lead to 'enhanced' levels of vacancy.
The negative outlook came as the company reported that full-year pre-tax losses widened to £680.8 million from £63.9 million even as revenues increased 66% to £140.3 million.
Total property value was £1.9 billion, a decrease of 26% on a like-for-like basis as net rental income slumped 74% to £16 million against December 2019. The shares weakened 1.5% to 169p.
Aviation services group John Menzies (MNZS) reported full-year pre-tax losses of £120.5 million as revenues tumbled 38% to £824.2 million amid a 49% reduction in flight volumes.
The company said it was ready to scale up operations to meet customer demands but didn’t anticipate a return to pre-pandemic volumes until 2023. Nevertheless, the shares flew 3% higher to 242p.
A LIST OF FTSE 100 MOVERS CAN BE FOUND HERE
