The drinks giant behind global brands including Guinness published a pre-AGM trading commentary this morning that clearly gave investors something to cheer. Details were limited but expectations remain unchanged from those laid out in July, whilst management also believe the company is making good progress against strategic initiatives and will outperform the wider market once consumer confidence recovers. That’s been sufficient to send the Diageo share price more than 5% higher in early trade.
An AGM trading update from IG Design this morning paints a somewhat mixed picture with market conditions looking stable but investors appear to be focusing on the full year outlook. This notes that profits are set to be below but within 10% of previous market expectations and towards the lower end of internal projections. Facts such as the strong cash position and timings leading to improvements in H2 profitability are being outweighed and the IG Design share price is around 20% lower an hour into the day.
The chain pub and restaurant operator M&B issued a pre-close trading statement this morning which investors have managed to take a glass-half-full view of. Sales momentum is clearly slowing, but there’s scope for some cheer in the fact that energy and food costs are coming down, helping mitigate ongoing wage pressures. Management are confident that they can continue a quest for delivering market outperformance and further improvements to profitability. Mitchells and Butlers shares are trading up around 3% just after 9am.
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