The FTSE 100 has ignored other markets this morning and nudged higher, despite news of China’s retaliation to the US in its ongoing trade war causing shockwaves around the world.
Investors may have been encouraged by Donald Trump's hints at a resolution in the coming weeks.
The UK basket of leading shares is up 0.6% to 7,205.72, untroubled by the news that, following media reports over the weekend, Vodafone (VOD) has indeed cut its dividend, ending a 20-year run of (mainly) inflation-beating increases.
While there’s good news for Vodafone’s customers as it announced the rollout of 5G in seven cities across the UK, it’s little consolation for investors who have seen their dividend cut by 40%, in part to help recoup the cost of rolling out the 5G network.
The share price dropped significantly yesterday, but has recovered by 1.9% to 134p in trading this morning. That's because investors have seen this coming for a while. We’ve cautioned several times, most recently last month, that Vodafone’s prospective 9% dividend yield could be at risk as it tries to save much-needed cash.
Revealing the dividend cut in its full-year results, Vodafone also reported losses for the year through March amounted to €7.64bn, compared to a profit of €2.79bn on-year.
The big faller today comes from the FTSE 250 as engineering group Renishaw (RSW) disappointed the market with another profit warning.
Its shares have fallen 8.9% to £37.67 after it cut its full year revenue and profit for the second time in less than two months, as a slowdown in demand from Asia for some of its products continues to impact the firm.
Renishaw now expects full-year revenue to be in the range of £580m to £600m, down from previous guidance of £635m to £665m, and believes pre-tax profit will now be in the range of £111m to £126m, down from previous guidance of £146m to £166m.
In a trading update, the company said pre-tax profit through March dropped to £84.8m, down from £104.4m the previous year, though revenue inched up 0.3% to £431.1m.
At the other end of the scale is Greggs (GRG), which has seen its shares rise 11.3% to £19.92 on tasty news that sales have jumped over 15%, following a boom in popularity of its vegan sausage rolls.
Greggs has also served up a healthy outlook for the rest of the year and said it expects for 2019 as a whole than it was previously expecting.
Elsewhere, shares in property developer Land Securities (LAND) have also remained relatively stable, dropping just 0.6% to 887p this morning, despite its downbeat outlook and revealing in its full year results that pre-tax losses have ballooned to £123m, compared to £43m the previous year.
Support services group DCC (DCC) on the other hand has had a positive morning, with its shares rising 1.4% to £65.78 after it reported 'very strong growth'.
Revenue jumped 16% to £15.3bn and operating profit increased 20% to £460m in its full year results.
The acquisitive company says its purchases helped generate the strong growth, and buoyed by the good news has also announced another £90m of new acquisitions.
