Coca-Cola HBC (CCH)

The FTSE 100 starts the week on the back foot although it is still holding on to a position north of 7,200, down 0.37% at 7,210.16 in early trading. An uptick in the pound contributing to the weaker open. Consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) reports a 65% drop in annual profit owing to one-off gains and expenses but underlying earnings are up as the company hit the top end of its sales ...

Following a palate-pleasing run, some of the fizz has dissipated from Coca-Cola HBC (CCH) on Thursday, the shares off 4.6% to £25.69 despite the soft drinks colossus reporting strong revenue growth and margin expansion for the 2018 calendar year. Forward-looking investors appear spooked by the FTSE 100 firm’s warning that slowing economic growth across a range of emerging and developed markets ...

Risk-averse investors unnerved by the return of volatility, not to mention slowing global economic growth and European political uncertainties, might view share price weakness at the Henderson High Income Trust (HHI) as a compelling entry point. We believe the outlook for income from this highly diversified portfolio is robust. Moreover, the historic dividend yield of 5.8% is attractive ...

Emerging markets haven’t been good to investors in 2018. Their meltdown has reflected a mounting trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, America and China, higher US interest rates and a strengthening of the dollar. Compounding the situation have been the currency crises and economic problems that have befallen Turkey and Argentina. However, where there is a problem, there can ...

Package holidays firm TUI (TUI) is firmly on the back foot in early trade on Thursday after the company warned of a €35m hit to profits this year as foreign currencies move against it. The news comes alongside third quarters figures showing a 7.5% fall in underlying earnings, sending the stock sliding close on 10% to £14.33. That makes TUI the biggest loser across a fairly weak FTSE 100, the ...

Fears have arisen over a shortage of carbon dioxide production in Europe, which could have trading implications for a number of stock market-listed food and beverage names, whose beer, fizzy drink and barbecue-related sales could end up falling flat over the summer. A shortage of CO2 among some of the largest suppliers in north-western Europe has emerged, endangering an expected boost to beer ...

Banking group Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has agreed to pay a $4.9bn fine to resolve a US probe into its past sale of mortgage-backed securities. This is a far smaller penalty than many investors feared the bank would have to pay, with some estimates predicting up to $12bn in fines. This sends shares in RBS jumping more than 5% to 290.6p in early trade on Thursday, one of the FTSE 100’s ...

Soft drinks colossus Coca-Cola HBC (CCH) fizzes 3.4% higher to £23.11 as the leading Coke bottler (rather immodestly) lauds an ‘exceptional’ set of full year results. Sales and profits for the 2017 calendar year are ahead of market expectations thanks to a combination of broad based growth, rising emerging markets profitability, operational leverage and a focus on costs. ‘Economic ...

European markets are off to a strong start on Valentine’s Day, the FTSE 100 continuing to show resilience in the face of yesterday’s high inflation figure and trading 42.2 points up at 7,210.2 early on. Distinctly unloved however is housebuilder-to-construction firm Galliford Try (GFRD), which slumps 14.8% lower to 841.5p despite posting robust half year results with its Linden Homes arm in ...

London’s blue-chip benchmark marks time at 7,436.5 points early on, failing to match the strong gains on Wall Street overnight and in Asia this morning. However, heating and plumbing products distributor Ferguson (FERG) firms 3.1% to £50.15 on strong results for the year to July with good trading momentum continuing in the fourth quarter. Enjoying a tailwind in the US, where residential and ...

The FTSE 100 opens down by over 20 points to 7,274.85 as North Korea’s latest missile test spooks investors. Cheap and cheerful pub operator JD Wetherspoon (JDW) ticks up 7% to £11.17 as its pre-tax profit before exceptional items hit £102.8m in the 53 weeks to 30 July, a 27.5% increase on 2016’s figure. Like-for-like sales increased by 4%. Toys and games maker and distributer ...

Despite headwinds from rising input costs and a €23m adverse foreign exchange movement, Coca-Cola HBC (CCH) reports ‘excellent’ first half results helped by an acceleration of sales growth in the second quarter. Management believes that ‘good volume trends will continue in the second half’ and guides towards a better 2017 sales and margin performance than expected at the start of the ...

Sales of big ticket furniture are not going well for retailer DFS (DFS) which has cut its earnings guidance towards the lower end of forecasts. The news is a hefty blow coming after orders declined in April, May and June, reflecting an uncertain economic environment, an unexpected national election and warm weather. Investors are spooked, marking the share price down by more than 7% in early trade ...

The FTSE 100 is marking new record highs in the region of 7,600 as latest UK construction data shows the industry expanding at the fastest rate since 2015. In the last 12 months the index of Britain's leading 100 companies has shrugged off Brexit and the election of Donald Trump to advance 22.4% as sterling weakness has seen greater value ascribed to its member's overseas earnings. Which are ...

The UK’s biggest telecoms group, BT (BT.A), plans to shake-up its global service division and scale back dividend growth ambitions. The group continues to battle back from the effects of an accounting scandal in Italy and a profit warning. The share price remains surprisingly robust in early trades, dipping a little more than 1% to 308.55p. British company behind the Superdry fashion ...

Sell into the share price recovery at leading Coke brands bottler Coca-Cola HBC (CCH). Impressive 2016 results (16 Feb) have sustained the rally for now, although the 2017 outlook for the drinks group’s territories remains mixed. Full year results showed a 90 basis point EBIT margin improvement to 8.3% driven by self-help measures, benign input costs and improved free cash flow of €431.2m ...

Dividend payments shave 37 points off the FTSE 100 today, contributing to a 0.6% headline price decline on the blue chip index, which trades at 6,824. Yesterday was the last day for investors to qualify for dividends at index heavyweights including Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB), HSBC (HSBA), Astrazeneca (AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), causing declines in their stock prices as they trade ...

Any stock market index needs new blood now and again to remain healthy and the FTSE 100 is no exception. Some companies will hop in and out fairly frequently but others can be joining the blue chip ranks for the first time. In the first two parts of this series on the FTSE 100 (see Cover, Shares, 26 May and Feature, Shares, 2 June) we looked at how the FTSE 100 had evolved over 10 years and the ...

In the first part of our series on the FTSE 100 (26 May 2016) we examined the evolution of the index over the past decade. Banks, oil and mining stocks have lost their prominence at the top end of the market; travel and leisure, housebuilding and beverage companies have become bigger forces. In doing this analysis we noticed how some of today’s blue chips were absent from the FTSE 100 in ...

Directors were big sellers of shares last week, according Shares’ Director Detective deal tracker, offloading a net £63 million of stock in the week ending 27 May. Making up the lion’s share of that number is Nick Robertson, founder of online clothing empire ASOS (ASC:AIM), who cashed in £46 million to fund a divorce settlement. Robertson’s overall stake is still 6.6% of the ...