London Stocks Seen Opening Lower
0743 GMT – The FTSE 100 is expected to open lower, according to IG, after briefly hitting a 22-month high on Wednesday, its first day of trading this week. Spreadbetting firm IG expects the London index to start trading down eight points after closing at 7420 yesterday. Stock markets have gained this week on reports that the Omicron variant might be less severe than previous strains and thus require fewer restrictions that could jeopardize the economic recovery. “While heightening the chance of short-term restrictions, the rapid spread, mild outcomes, and apparent ability to replace the deadlier Delta variant means Omicron could in fact bring a swifter return to normality,” Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at IG, says. (lorena.ruibal@wsj.com)
Companies News:
Creightons 1H Pretax Profit, Revenue Fell
Creightons PLC said Thursday that pretax profit and revenue fell for the first half of fiscal 2022 after the previous year’s half-year figures were boosted by one-off hygiene sales generated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Cloudbreak Discovery FY 2021 Loss Narrowed
Cloudbreak Discovery PLC on Thursday reported a narrowed loss for fiscal 2021, and said that it expects an active year ahead with sampling and testing results from several projects.
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UniVision Engineering 1H Pretax Profit Fell After Covid-19 Disruption
UniVision Engineering Ltd. said Thursday that pretax profit fell for the first half of fiscal 2022 after it experienced a number of delays to projects, customer billing and certain certifications related to Covid-19 disruption.
Contact: London NewsPlus, Dow Jones Newswires; Dow Jones Newswires; paul.larkins@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 30, 2021 03:10 ET (08:10 GMT)
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