The FTSE 100 is down by 0.3% to 7,682 as the market tentatively waits for the US Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates. Most are pricing in a 25 basis point hike but along with the latest UK inflation data expected today there is a lot of uncertainty in the markets.
Online food delivery company Just Eat (JE.) is down 7.8% to 784p after rival Deliveroo announces dramatic expansion plans that will add 5,000 new restaurants to its platform. This will put the company in direct competition with Just Eat, analysts have described the move as a significant threat to the firm.
Telecoms company TalkTalk (TALK) gains 6.5% to 125.25p after a Deutsche Bank issues a broker note reaffirming its buy rating on the firm.
Waste disposal company Biffa (BIFF) is down 1.8% to 237.25p after it revealed its CEO Ian Wakelin is stepping down. The company put out its full year 2018 results showing that underlying after tax profit rose 33.8% to £47.9m and net revenue increased by 8.8% to £977.7m.
Biffa expects a reduction in its current year underlying profit before returning to growth.
Electronics and telecoms retailer Dixons Carphone (DC.) loses 4.5% to 188.9p as it reveals that there has been an incident of unauthorised access to data held by the company. One part of the breach concerns an attempt to compromise 5.9m payment cards although those with chip and pin protection were not impacted. 105,000 non-EU cards without chip and pin protection have been compromised.
Computer games label Team 17 (TM17:AIM) shoots up 5.8% to 246p on announcing the sequel to its award winning cooking game Overcooked. Overcooked 2 has been co-developed with another games label Ghost Town Games and its launch was announced at industry conference E3 in Los Angeles.
Distribution and logistics company Connect (CNCT) has collapsed by 46.2% to 28p after saying that the company’s performance has been ‘extremely disappointing’ since announcing results on 1 May. The company has decided to close its Pass My Parcel division and wind down the associated Parcel Shop network.
The company’s chief executive Mark Cashmore is stepping down from his position and cheif financial officer David Bauernfeind is leaving the business with immediate effect.
Engineering support services minnow Redhall (RHL:AIM) is down 4.2% to 8.5p after saying that its first half financial performance has been impacted by the timing of contract awards and programme delays. The company’s turnover for the six months to 31 March 2018 was down on the prior year, coming in at £14.7m versus 2017’s £19m. It also made an adjusted operating loss of £1.9m compared to a £0.2m profit the prior year.
