Spreadex Market Update
AstraZeneca and RBS lift FTSE, tough morning for BT and Thomas Cook
Royal Bank of Scotland surged by 3% this morning following better than expected second quarter results, including net profit of £293 million. And whilst the bank reported a £153 million loss for the first half of the year, CEO Ross McEwan hopes that the fund-sapping bigger fines are coming to an end, something that would make the sale of the 80% government-owned bank more attractive.
Like Glaxo yesterday afternoon, AstraZeneca surprised investors with its second quarter results, as blood thinner Brilinta and its diabetes treatments came to the rescue. Earnings per share of $1.21 were much higher than the $1.06 forecast, even if it does equate to a $0.09 fall year-on-year, whilst sales similarly avoided analysts’ worst fears, coming in at $6.31 billion to the $6.09 billion expected. These results helped lift Astra by around 2%, as it and its pharma-giant rival Glaxo try and escape the sluggish trading that has plagued them in the last few months.
It wasn’t all investor-pleasing news this Thursday; despite seeing a 16% jump in pre-tax profits to £632 million, BT Group slipped by over 2% after the bell. This disappointment could perhaps be attributed to the 2% drop in revenue seen by the media company, a decline that becomes more egregious when compared to the staggering growth shown by Sky in its fiscal full year results yesterday. Thomas Cook similarly suffered this morning, slipping by 3% after the holiday company warned that the tragic violence in Tunisia, and the ongoing struggles with Greece, will cost it around £25 million across the year.
Over in the Eurozone, and the DAX received a similar boost to its UK colleague, with a 3% jump for Deutsche Bank following the news that its net profit had more than tripled year-on-year to €796 million pushed the German index towards 3 digit gains. With the head negotiators from the IMF set to arrive in Greece today, technical talks should continue, the hope being that this preliminary stage will be completed by Friday; if so, then next week should, in theory, bring some more of the Greek action that the Eurozone had got so used to in the past few months.
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