Source: Sharecast
STOCKS TO WATCH
Building materials distributor and DIY retailer Grafton held annual guidance and announced a new £25m share buyback after interim profits jumped 19% to £91.5m on the back of a strong contribution from non-UK operations. Grafton said operations in Spain and Ireland helped drive a 10% rise in revenue to £1.25bn.
Self-storage firm Safestore said on Thursday that it had seen continued momentum across stores in all markets in the three months ended 31 July, supported by growth from opened developments. Safestore said total revenues were up 5.8% year-on-year at £59.6m, while like-for-like revenues advanced 3.5% to £57.9m.
Anglo American has raised $2.5bn from the sale of its remaining stake in Valterra Platinum, fully exiting the South African mining company after its demerger earlier this year. AA sold 52.2m shares via an accelerating bookbuild offering to institutional investors at a price of ZAR 845 a share, generating cash proceeds of ZAR 44.1bn. The transaction followed a 23% surge in Valterra's share price since it was spun off from Anglo in May.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
The government could save energy users £5bn a year by overhauling the electricity market to stop gas-fired power stations from setting the wholesale price for electricity, according to the former energy tsar. Britain relies on gas plants for about a quarter of its annual electricity use, but they play a much greater role during spells of low wind and low solar generation. – Guardian
A court has frozen £150m of assets belonging to the owner of the collapsed Prax Lindsey oil refinery, an oil tycoon whose whereabouts have been a mystery since the plant's sudden financial implosion earlier this year. Administrators sifting through the wreckage of five companies in the Prax empire are suing Winston Soosaipillai, better known by his middle names Sanjeev Kumar, for breach of his duties as a director after the energy group's failure. – Guardian
US home ownership has dropped for the first time in nearly a decade as the White House considers declaring a housing emergency. According to an analysis of US census data by Redfin, US home ownership fell by 0.1% between April and June to 86.2m households versus a year ago. Although the decline is small, it marks the first drop in US homeowners since the start of 2016. – Telegraph
The teenage hacking group that brought down Marks & Spencer has claimed responsibility for the cyber attack that has forced Jaguar Land Rover to shut down assembly lines. The cyber groups Scattered Spider and Shiny Hunters said they had been able to exploit a flaw in the carmaker's IT systems. The groups said they had gained access to customer data. – Telegraph
The leader of Britain's trade unions has urged Labour to fight Reform UK by hitting millionaires, banks and gambling with higher taxes. Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, has published an opinion poll of 5,000 adults. He says the results suggest a significant number of Labour voters are leaning to Reform. – Sky News
US CLOSE
Major indices delivered a mixed performance on Wednesday after a bout of profit-taking in the previous session.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.05% at 45,271.23, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.51% to 6,448.26 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.02% stronger at 21,497.73.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com