Smiths Group PLC (LON:SMIN) upped its interim dividend and said orders had picked up in recent months.
A planned demerger of the medical arm remains on track for the end of 2021, added the FTSE 100 engineering conglomerate.
Smiths struggled in its last full financial year due to the impact of Covid-19 and a weak oil price affecting its John Crane arm with a widespread restructuring to save £70mln announced in June 2020.
Trends across the group had been better recently it said today though revenues in the half-year to end-January 2021 were still 7% lower than a year ago at £1.15bn, with profit down by 20% to £107mln.
The interim dividend goes up by 6% to 11.7p, which the company said reflected its confidence in its medium and longer-term prospects.
"Subject to continued market recovery, group is confident of meeting market expectations for the full year", the statement said.
Andy Reynolds Smith, chief executive, added: "This is a robust set of results relative to our end markets, with a resilient top line, good profit conversion and excellent cash generation."