Greggs reports tasty numbers, JD Sports profits jump
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The FTSE 100 is expected to rise by 8 points on Tuesday, having dipped to finish at 7,769.14 the previous session.
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High street baker Greggs said full year total sales were up by a tasty 7.4% and company-managed shop like-for-like sales grew by 3.7%. In the fourth quarter company-managed like-for-like sales grew by 3%, reflecting a “particularly favourable” trading pattern in the final quarter of 2016. It expected full year results to be in line with expectations.
Provident Financial reported loss from its home credit business at the larger end of expectations and said its Vanquis Bank took 20% fewer new customer bookings in the fourth quarter compared to last year. Vanquis Bank and Moneybarn both began "dialogue" with the financial regulator over their respective investigations, while there was "progress reported on finding a new permanent chief executive.
JD Sports said on Tuesday that it expects pre-tax profit for the year to 3 February 2018 to be ahead of market expectations following a strong second half. The retailer now expects profit to reach around £300m versus market expectations of between £270m and £295m as the positive levels of performance announced in the interim results continued through the second half, including the Christmas period.
Newspaper round-up
One in four of Britain’s poorest households are falling behind with debt payments or spending more than a quarter of their monthly income on repayments, according to a study. The latest evidence of mounting debt problems for some of the most vulnerable in society is shown in a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, on behalf of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, with the poorest tenth of households more likely to be in net debt, owing more on plastic or on overdrafts and loans than they hold in savings. - Guardian
Lenders to Carillion, including the state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland, are facing hundreds of millions of pounds in losses after the contractor crashed into liquidation yesterday. Thirteen banks, led by the high street lenders RBS, Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and Santander, extended an estimated £1.6 billion in debt to Carillion that they will hope to recover through the liquidation. The debt is on top of the construction and support services group’s pension liability of almost £600 million. - The Times
Troubled outsourcing company Carillion has collapsed owing up to 30,000 businesses around £1bn in unpaid costs, with many expected to go under themselves as a result. Banks which had lent to the contractor could also be exposed to up to £2bn of losses, in what is one of the most high-profile corporate collapses since the financial crisis. - Telegraph
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Wall Street was closed on Monday for a national holiday.