The FTSE 100 is called to open lower this morning despite the overnight performances on Wall Street and in Asia with investors in cautious mood as markets continue to focus on the ongoing Greek situation and also have the US non-farm payrolls report to digest as well. The economic diary today also sees the release of domestic construction PMI data, the latest US weekly jobless claims in addition to the jobs report and a speech from the ECB President Mario Draghi this afternoon. Commodity prices are mixed and on the foreign exchanges, the pound is slightly lower against both the dollar and the euro ahead of these data releases and Mario Draghi's speech.
Company Announcements
Persimmon
Trading Update reports that it has traded well through H1 of 2015, noting that customer sentiment remained resilient through the period running up to the May General Election and confidence has improved subsequently. New home legal completion volumes rose 7% to 6,855 units and total revenue grew 12% to £1.34bn. The average selling price increased by 4% to around £195,000. At 30 June 2015, forward sales volumes into the private sale market were 12% of the prior year at 4,606 new homes with an average selling price of about £213,000, 4% ahead of last year. Total forward sales value at 30 June rose 15% to £1.36bn. Its outlet network of 395 active sites at the end of June was c. 5% stronger than at the start of 2015 and it plans to open another c. 125 new sites during H2 2015.
Dixons Carphone
It has announced that its Connected World Services (CWS) division has signed an agreement with Sprint Corporation to open and manage a significant number of Sprint-branded stores in the US. The initial phase will see 20 stores with Dixons Carphone (DC) providing retail expertise and proprietary knowledge. If these prove successful, the parties will move to a second phase which will see CWS investing equally with Sprint in a JV to support roll-out plans of up to 500 stores. During the second phase, DC will invest up to $32m to hold a 50% interest in the new venture.
Contributed by SVS Securities
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