27 April 2021 | 08:33am
StockMarketWire.com - UK stocks eked out modest gains in early trading Tuesday as investors digested some mixed earnings releases, including positive updates from BP and Focusrite and disappointing ones from Whitbread and Aveva.
At 0822, the benchmark FTSE 100 index was up 6.77 points, or 0.1%, at 6,969.89.
BP rose 2.6% to 304.2p on announcing that it would start a $500 million share buyback in the second quarter after its first-quarter profit was boosted by higher oil prices and refining margins.
BP s underlying replacement cost profit for the three months through March jumped to $2.6 billion, up from $791 million year-on-year. It kept its dividend steady at 5.25c per share.
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Aveva annual revenue flat as growth in H2 offset by pandemic hit in H1; CEO to depart
27 April 2021 | 07:54am
StockMarketWire.com - Engineering and industrial software company Aveva said full-year revenue was flat as double digit revenue growth during the second half of the year first-half weakness owing to the pandemic impact.
The company also said chief executive Craig Hayman has decided to return to the USA for personal reasons and would leave the group after the AGM in July.
Peter Herweck would be seconded from Schneider Electric on request of the board to the role of CEO starting 1 May 2021.
15 January 2021 | 09:17am
StockMarketWire.com - The FTSE 100 opened lower this morning over fears the UK is on the brink of a double-dip recession after official figures confirmed a slump in November.
The Office for National Statistics said that GDP fell 2.6% in November as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.
At 0845 GMT the benchmark index was down 41.12 points, or 0.60% to 6,760.84.
Engineering and industrial software company Aveva said revenue increased about 1.5% in the nine months to 31 December 2020, underpinned by a contract renewals in the final quarter of the year.
Its shares rose 4.73% to £37.25.
Tobacco giant British American Tobacco said the Serious Fraud Office had ended its probe into suspicions of corruption activity carried out by the company. The SFO would not be taking no further action, and the company said it was pleased the investigation, launched on 1 August 2017, had been discontinued.