BUSINESS LIVE: CMA to probe Amazon and Microsoft; Imperial boasts smoking alts growth; Grainger enjoys record year

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor:

‘The sense of relief also permeated Asian markets overnight and continued through to the UK at the open. However, despite the rebound in opening stock markets, the FTSE100 remains just a few points away from breaking even for the year.

‘The shift away from high-growth stocks elsewhere in the world has tended to be towards higher-yielding bonds, as opposed to the reliable and somewhat defensive nature of the UK’s main index.

‘Coupled with an apparently uncompromising view by international investors that the UK currently lacks real attractiveness, any such rise in its share prices of late has tended to be temporary in nature.

“Indeed, the more domestically focused FTSE250 is now down 7% year to date due to growing concerns about the immediate economic outlook.”

National Grid expects annual earnings per share to gain more weight towards the second half of the year, and the British energy system operator is confident of meeting expectations for the full year.

The group, which also runs an electricity and gas business in New York and Massachusetts, said it expects operating profit to be split evenly over the year for its UK businesses, but weighted more towards the second half. for those of the United States.

National Grid expects 10 to 15 percent of its New York business’s full-year operating profit to come in the first half ended Sept. 30, due to a higher non-cash environmental provision charge.

Britain’s biggest rental homebuilder is expecting another record year of construction, with the FTSE 250 group om trak for 1,600 units this year.

‘Our strong rental growth performance has continued throughout the remainder of our financial year. The team continues to deliver exceptional operational performance in all areas of the business and particularly in the completion and leasing of our new schemes.

‘Sales remain strong, valuations continue to demonstrate resilience and our balance sheet remains strong. We continue to successfully execute our growth plans, which will see our EPRA profits after tax double over the next three years.

‘We are delivering these new homes to one of the strongest occupational markets we have seen. Current leasing in our newly opened schemes is out-subscribing and we continue to drive an increase in rental income across our national portfolio.

“However, we remain conscious of protecting our customers’ rental affordability and therefore continue to ensure rental growth across our portfolio moves in line with wage inflation.”

Imperial Brands expects full-year profits to be in line with expectations, thanks to sustained demand, higher prices and strong adoption of tobacco alternatives such as e-cigarettes.

The company also announced a £1.1bn share buyback.

Winston cigarette and Backwoods cigar maker said its net revenue growth from tobacco products improved in the second half of the year, as higher prices helped offset the relatively steeper decline in volume compared to historical averages. .

On Wednesday, the government proposed banning younger generations from buying cigarettes, a move that would give the country some of the strictest tobacco rules in the world and hurt sales for major tobacco companies.

Tobacco stocks suffered after the announcement.

Britain’s competition regulator will investigate the dominance of US tech giants Amazon and Microsoft in the UK cloud market, following an Ofcom investigation that identified difficulties for UK companies to access or switch to multiple providers .

“The CMA will now carry out an independent investigation to decide whether there is an adverse effect on competition and, if so, whether it should take action or recommend others take action,” Ofcom said in a statement.

Ofcom, which began investigating cloud services last year, had said in April that it was particularly concerned about the practices of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft due to their positions in the market, and planned to ask the competition regulator to investigate.

UK businesses have told Ofcom they were concerned it would be too difficult to switch or mix and match cloud provider, Fergal Farragher, Ofcom director responsible for the market study.

“We are therefore referring the market to the CMA for further scrutiny, to ensure that enterprise customers continue to benefit from cloud services,” Farragher added.