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7am: Halifax house price monitor
Prices of homes rose in annual terms by just 0.1% in April, their smallest year-on-year increase since December 2012, mortgage lender Halifax said in an update which was less bullish than other surveys.
Prices fell by 0.3% in month-on-month terms, the first drop this year, after a 0.8% increase in March.
Despite the weakness in the market last month, Halifax said it sensed less volatility.
Rival lender Nationwide indicated that house prices grew for the first time in eight months in April amid signs that mortgage applications are picking up.
7am: JD Sports acquisition
JD Sports, the leisurewear retailer, is acquiring French peer Courir in a €520m deal.
Courir has 313 stores across six European countries and 36 trading under franchise agreements as Courir in North West Africa, Middle East and French overseas territories. It also has two stores which trade as Naked in Denmark.
It is currently owned by private equity firm Equistone, which bought the business in 2018 following the carve-out from Groupe Go Sport.
In the year to the end of December 2022, Courir had consolidated revenues of €609.8m, profit before interest and tax of €47.4m and gross assets of €678.4m.
7am: Macfarlane
Macfarlane chair Aleen Gulvanessian will tell shareholders at today’s AGM that the packaging group has made a solid start to 2023, with Q1 sales and profits ahead of the same period in 2022. Expectations for the full year are unchanged.
The Glasgow-based company has completed two acquisitions during the first four months of the year, the latest being the acquisition of Gottlieb Packaging Materials, a protective packaging distributor based in Manchester.
Ms Gulvanessian will say: “The growth in both sales and profits that we have achieved in the first quarter of 2023 continues to demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy, the quality of our people and the resilience of our business model.”
With shares trading at around 112p, house broker Shore Capital believes there is 25% upside in the stock, implying a price of c.140p.
7am: Direct Line
Direct Line Insurance Group reported an increase in average renewal premiums for the first three months of 2023 as higher prices in its motor division helped boost margins but warned of a further jump in claims in its motor business.
“We have experienced further adverse claims development in respect of late 2022 and early 2023 in Motor (including Commercial Motor) particularly in relation to damage,” it said.
“This is expected to put pressure on earnings in 2023 including from prior-year reserve releases.”
7am: Marshalls
Landscaping materials group Marshalls cut annual guidance after like-for-like sales fell 14% in the first four months of the year due to a reduction in new house building and continued weakness in private housing maintenance activity.
7am: Simple Online Healthcare
Simple Online Healthcare Group, the online pharmacist which trades as Simple Online Pharmacy in the UK, has reported a 55% rise in revenue to more than £24 million in the year to 28th February 2023.
The company, which serves the NHS in England but not in Scotland, was founded in Glasgow in 2015 by local community pharmacists Addy Mohammed and Karim Nassar.
Royal Mail boss in exit speculation
The chief executive of Royal Mail is expected to leave the group within days following the long-running dispute with the trade unions.
The departure of Simon Thompson, who was promoted to chief executive at the start of 2021, could come as early as this week, according to Sky News, which first reported his potential exit.
A spokesman for International Distributions Services (IDS), the London-listed parent company of Royal Mail, said: “We do not comment on speculation.”
Retail sales
UK retail sales increased last month, though consumers continue to feel squeezed by inflationary pressure.
According to the British Retail Consortium, sales rose 5.1% on-year in April. This compares to a 0.3% fall in the same period last and is in line with the average growth rate over the past three months.
Global markets
US Treasury Secretary Yellen last night appeared on CNBC calling for congress to raise the debt ceiling, announcing that the Treasury could “run out of cash” as soon as 1 June.
This comes ahead of today’s meeting between the White House and Congressional leadership where they are expected to discuss a path forward.
On the banking sector, Ms Yellen noted that the system remains well capitalised but that the regulators are “ready to use tools if bank pressures arise”. She also did not rule out the possibility of a recession, but argued it is not the most likely path.
US inflation data is in focus this week with CPI tomorrow, followed by PPI (Thursday).
Shares on Wall Street ended mixed on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.2%, the S&P 500 flat, and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.2%.
Sterling was quoted at $1.2615 early Tuesday, a shade lower than $1.2628 at the London equities close on Friday.
In Tokyo this morning the Nikkei 225 index was up 1.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.2%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.6%.
