FTSE 100 recovered further from Monday’s slump as Covid-affected stocks such as airlines rallied strongly though all eyes will be on the interest rate news from the US Fed later. The blue-chip index was up 118 to 7,490 in early trades.
Microsoft profits jumped to US$18.8bn in its latest quarter as revenues rose by 20% to US$51.7bn. The cloud arm again drove the improvement though the tech giant added that the PC’s resurgence is continuing.
The boss of energy supplier Octopus boss has voiced concern on whether the UK government will be able to prevent huge energy price hikes from April. Bills are expected to surge 50% to £2,000 a year for households.
Wizz Air’s losses surged in the last three months of last year as Omicron stalled the air travel recovery. The budget carrier lost €268mln in the period despite rising passenger numbers.
]Bloomsbury Publishing said profit for the year to end-February, 2022 will be ‘materially' ahead of market forecasts as recent sales came in higher than expected. Trading continued to be strong in the Consumer division, for both Adult and Children's publishing, the publisher of Harry Potter and a string of other best sellers added.
Among the small caps, Bradda Head Lithium described assays from its Basin East project in Arizona as ‘incredibly encouraging’. Results from the final four holes identified further thicker intersections of Upper Clay than anticipated
Allergy Therapeutics has received FDA clearance for its particle based peanut allergy vaccine candidate. Clearance paves the way the way for the initiation of a Phase I trial, which will be run in the US.