BHP declares record final dividend, Persimmon profits improve 13pc
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 30 points lower on Tuesday, having closed up 0.43% at 7,591.26 on Monday.
Stocks to watch
AstraZeneca announced on Tuesday that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has approved ‘Tagrisso’ (osimertinib) for the first-line treatment of patients with inoperable or recurrent epidermal growth factor receptor mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer, following priority review. The FTSE 100 drugmaker said the approval was based on results from the global Phase III FLAURA trial, which included Japanese patients and which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
BHP Billiton declared a record final dividend as higher prices and volumes sent the miner’s underlying annual profit up by a third. Underlying attributable profit for the year to the end of June rose to $8.9bn from $6.7bn a year earlier, in line with analysts’ average forecast. The final dividend rose to 63 cents a share from 43 cents a share, taking the 2018 annual payout to 118 cents a share.
Persimmon reported a 13% increase in profits from the first half of the year as the housebuilder sold 4% more homes and the average selling price increased 1% to £215,813. Chief executive Jeff Fairburn, who famously took home £47.1m in pay last year, pointed to a "resilient" market, with current forward sales 6% ahead of last year to place the group "in a strong position for the second half of the year".
Newspaper round-up
The British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is to urge Donald Trump to face down Moscow’s threat to western values by imposing wider economic sanctions against Russia and agreeing new rules to protect the legitimacy of democratic elections. In a speech in Washington on Tuesday during his first visit since taking over from Boris Johnson as the UK’s most senior diplomat, Hunt will specifically call for tighter regulation of online political advertising and new measures to prevent cyber attacks on electoral machinery. - Guardian
Hospitals face running out of drugs in a chaotic no-deal Brexit, the group that represents NHS hospital and ambulance service has privately warned. Poor co-ordination by ministers and health service bosses means there has been a failure to prepare for the UK to be left without a Brexit deal, a leaked letter from NHS Providers said. – Guardian
Communications regulator Ofcom has started an investigation into potential cartel activity in the business parcel delivery sector. The watchdog said it was investigating suspected market sharing and customer allocation deals in the industry, which could result in “prevention, restriction or distortion of competition in the UK and/or the European Union”. – Telegraph
Apple is reportedly planning to launch a new, redesigned MacBook Air, answering fans' demands for a new low-cost laptop more than three years after the last significant update. The company is likely to unveil the new model at an event in October, separate to its annual September launch of new iPhones, according to Bloomberg. – Telegraph
Mounting concern for Elon Musk’s health and his ability to follow through with a pledge to take Tesla private sent the company’s shares tumbling below $300 yesterday. The stock fell by as much as 6.7 per cent to a three-month low of $285 in morning trading in New York, some way off the $420-a-share take-private offer for which Mr Musk, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, claimed to have secured funding this month. They recovered later to $298.96, down 2.1 per cent. – The Times
Britons owe a record £19bn to the taxman and to the providers of household utilities such as water, electricity and gas, according to Citizens Advice. The charity is accusing the government of being indifferent to the debt problem, which it says is more destructive than missing a credit card payment. In a report called Hidden Debts, based on its own research, Citizens Advice warns that people face having essential services cut off if they fall behind with bills or even face prison if they get behind on council tax. – The Times
US close
Wall Street finished its Monday session in the green, as investors grew optimistic ahead of US-China trade talks later in the week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.35% to 25,758.69, the S&P 500 was ahead 0.24% at 2,857.05, and the Nasdaq Composite finished 0.06% firmer at 7,821.01.
“Markets often find it difficult to focus on one topic, and thus with the focus now shifting away from Turkey and towards China, it comes as no surprise that the pessimism of last week is fading into obscurity,” said IG market analyst Joshua Mahony earlier.
However, Mahony added that this newfound optimism was likely to be "ill-founded", noting that all the previous meetings between the two nations had shown "precious few signs of anything that looks like a breakthrough."
Elsewhere, Turkey was also in focus after Standard & Poor's and Moody's downgraded the country's credit rating further into junk territory on Friday.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said that while the move was largely expected, it could prompt a similar downgrade to Turkey's banks in the coming days, which were already struggling with the measures taken by Turkey's authorities to support the lira.