The house builder Persimmon issued a Q3 trading update this morning and whilst highlighting that full year completion numbers remained on track as well as cheering the new government’s initiatives for the broader sector, management highlighted signs of creeping cost inflation for next year. The impact of higher taxes was also noted, as was the uncertainty around the timing of future interest rate cuts, with this combination ultimately proving to be a net negative for the Persimmon share price, which was down more than 5% in early trade before posting a modest recovery.
The popular high street retailer published its half year update today which included a raft of upbeat headlines. Revenues rose 5.8% with food sales growing almost twice as fast as home and clothing, helping push post-tax profits for the period up by almost 35%. Management notes on the latest reshaping deal seem to have been well received and although there’s some caution in terms of the outlook – consumer uncertainty lingers – early trade in H2 has been encouraging. The Marks and Spencer share price is trading around 5% higher at 9am.
Breaking away from our usual theme of regulatory filing driven price moves, the industrial plant hire specialist Ashtead is worth a note this morning. The stock is surging in the wake of the anticipated building boom that will follow from what at the time of writing now looks like a guaranteed return to the White House for Donald Trump. The company’s North American subsidiary Sunbelt Rentals contributes around 85% of Ashtead’s group revenue and that’s been sufficient to see the Ashtead share price add more than 7% so far this morning, leading the FTSE-100 as a result. This will also likely drive renewed calls for a US listing.
Headlines we expect tomorrow
BT Group Interim Results
This time last year Reported revenue £10.4bn, Pre-tax profits £1.1bn, Interim dividend 2.31p
J Sainsbury Interim Results
This time last year Pre-tax profit £340m, Grocery sales +10.1%, Interim dividend 3.9p
