London’s FTSE 100 drifts 3.7 points lower to 7,154 on Thursday, European markets quiet ahead of the European Central Bank’s interest rate vote and press conference later on.
A busy day for corporate reporting sees estate agent Countrywide (CWD) crash 20.7% lower to 70.5p on a warning adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2018 will fall by ‘around £10m’.
The news accompanies disappointing 2017 results showing a 23% drop in adjusted EBITDA to £64.7m, reflecting a poor performance in sales and lettings. Countrywide has shelved the dividend for 2017 and executive chairman Peter Long has promoted industry veteran Paul Creffield to the role of group operations director to drive Countrywide’s turnaround.
Among Thursday’s notable gainers is Domino’s Pizza (DOM), the pizza delivery powerhouse bid up 9.6% to 348.5p. Full year results show UK sales through the tills breaking through the £1bn barrier for the first time, while UK system sales are also up 7.1% like-for-like in the opening eight weeks of 2018.
Lloyds Banking (LLOY) edges 0.43p higher to 67.7p as it launches a £1bn share buyback, having selected UBS to execute the purchase on its behalf.
Security giant G4S (GFS) sheds 3.3% to trade at 255.2p, early gains fizzing out on investor impatience with the promise of jam tomorrow after 2017 revenue came in slightly below analysts' expectations. Nevertheless, G4S’ annual results revealing another year of profitable growth and good cash generation, underpinning a full year hike in the dividend to 9.7p (2016: 9.41p).
Communications technology company Spirent (SPT) sparks up 10.5% to 120.2p on positive annual results, investors also welcoming a further special dividend of 5 cents per share on top of a 5% hike in the full year payout to 4.08 cents. Spirent also expects its tax bill to drop materially following President Trump’s tax reforms across the pond.
Lacking spark is Alfa Financial Software (ALFA), the enterprise software supplier marked down 91.5p (19.1%) to 386.5p despite posting strong profits growth and sales at the top end of guidance for 2017. The share price reverse reflects the impact of the weakening dollar, which means Alfa expects to report ‘low double-digit top line growth on a budget rate, or mid double-digit on a constant currency basis’, with sales growth set to be weighted to the second half of 2018.
