IT contracting services firm FDM (FDM) has joined the lengthening list of companies to pull its dividend as it tries to conserve cash during the coronavirus challenge. The FTSE 250 company was due to pay an 18.5p per share final dividend, worth £20.2m, but this will now not be paid. FDM has also delayed kits AGM as the UK continues with its lockdown policy. The been scheduled for 29 April ...

Shares in Domino’s Pizza franchisor DP Eurasia (DPEU:AIM) rose 7% to 34.7p after delivering a big jump in revenue and like-for-like growth. In its results for the year to 31 December 2019, the company reported a 14.4% rise in revenue to 980m Turkish lira (£125m), and like-for-like growth of 10.7%. INCREASING ONLINE PENETRATION Overall online delivery penetration continued to increase ...

Shares in aviation services group John Menzies (MNZS) fell 6.7% to 78p as it said the coronavirus outbreak will have a ‘very significant adverse impact’ on the business in the short-term. Giving a more detailed update on the coronavirus impact following the publication of its 2019 results two weeks ago, John Menzies said the ‘impact on our business of the spread of the COVID-19 virus has ...

Shares in online property listings site Rightmove (RMV) fell 3.8% to 470.7p as it cancelled its final dividend and withdrew earnings guidance with the UK housing market going into hibernation. Coronavirus containment measures mean people will not be moving house in the near future while banks are pulling mortgages from the market at pace. The company had been planning to pay a final ...

High-street clothing and home retailer Next (NXT) has issued a short statement to say it is closing its online, warehousing and distribution operations. The firm stopped taking online orders on Thursday night and 'will not be taking any more orders after this time until further notice'. The move came after a growing number of staff at its warehousing and distribution operations expressed ...

Hopes of a 'V-shaped' recovery in the UK stock market look to be fading as shares continue to take a beating, while dividend wipe-out across the market continues. The benchmark FTSE 100 index opened 3.7% down at 5,602 this morning, with investors hopes also dented by a warning from the Bank of England that the UK economy is set for long-term damage as a result of the coronavirus ...

US credit-rating agency Standard & Poors cut its view on Thursday on Marks & Spencer’s (MKS) long-term sterling and foreign-currency debt from BBB-, the lowest level of investment grade, to BB+ which is regarded as sub-investment grade or ‘junk’. M&S shares fell 5% to 105p by midday. The move affects billions of pounds and hundreds of millions of dollars of unsecured debt with ...

Offices, airlines and financial companies that make money from the stock market would appear to be among the hardest hit from the coronavirus outbreak. After all, with more people working remotely and large sections of the economy shutdown for the foreseeable future, office space is hardly the most in-demand thing right now. While the airline industry as a whole faces a very uncertain future ...

The investment trust sector has seen huge price moves over the last couple of weeks, exacerbated by increased volatility in stock markets. The sector trades at an average 15% discount to net asset values (NAV), a level only seen at the depths of the financial crisis in 2008. ONE-DAY MOVEMENTS As stock markets have recovered this week, we have seen some wild moves in the prices of some trusts ...

The latest update from troubled shopping centre landlord Intu Properties (INTU) makes for even grimmer reading than usual as the effects of UK lockdown became starkly apparent. The company received less than 30% of its second quarter rent from tenants. Thanks to its substantial borrowings and the migration of retail sales to online, Intu was already in a tight corner. Today it falls a ...