Source: Sharecast
STOCKS TO WATCH
Pearson forecast a pick-up in fourth quarter sales on Friday, leaving the educational publisher on track to meet full-year guidance. Pearson said underlying sales had grown 4% in the third quarter, helping lift revenues in the year-to-date by 2%, stating it had made "good progress" in the period, with robust performances across all its businesses. Looking ahead, Pearson said: "We expect group sales growth and adjusted operating profit in line with market expectations for 2025, with stronger sales growth in the fourth quarter."
Engineer Smiths Group said it has agreed to sell Smiths Interconnect to Molex, a Koch company, for an enterprise value of £1.3bn. Smiths said the sale, which was due to complete in the second half of fiscal 2026, was "a notable step forward" in its strategy to become a more focused industrial engineering company.
Insulation and building products group SIG has reiterated its full-year outlook but reported no growth in underlying sales in the third quarter. Like-for-like revenues were flat year-on-year over the three months to 30 September, following a 1.5% increase in the first half, as "subdued demand" persisted across the company's market, "with no material signs" of market recoveries during the period.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
The City regulator has called on banks and payment firms to bring in stricter controls protecting customers from romance fraud after a study showed a number of missed "red flags" that led to people losing huge sums of money. The review by the Financial Conduct Authority highlighted one case where someone lost £428,000, another where a customer made 403 payments totalling £72,000 to a fraudster and a case where someone wanted money to transfer cryptocurrency to their "partner" in Iraq. – Guardian
Developers will be allowed to build lower numbers of affordable homes and claim higher subsidies to build them under plans being drawn up by the government to solve London's housebuilding crisis. Steve Reed, the housing secretary, and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, will announce the package within weeks, in what officials say will be a time-limited intervention designed to stall the sudden drop in new building in the capital. – Guardian
The proposed takeover of The Telegraph by a consortium with links to China could face investigation as a potential national security threat, the Government has said. Ministers were questioned in the House of Lords over the protracted attempt by RedBird Capital to engineer a £500m acquisition, partly relying on the wealth of the United Arab Emirates royal family. – Telegraph
The boss of Sky has vowed to protect the broadcaster's news business in response to fears about future funding from its US owner. Dana Strong, the Sky chief executive, told staff during a recent meeting that the media giant would support Sky News for the long term regardless of whether parent company Comcast continues to provide funding. – Telegraph
The owner of British Gas, Holland & Barrett and EG Group are among nearly 500 companies that have been named by the government for breaches of employment law in which tens of thousands of workers were paid less than the minimum wage. The Department for Business and Trade has released a list of 491 employers who have now repaid a total of £10.3m for underpaying about 42,000 workers over several years. – The Times
US CLOSE
Major indices closed sharply lower on Thursday amid fears surrounding bad bank loans.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.65% at 45,952.24, while the S&P 500 shed 0.63% to 6,629.07 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.47% softer at 22,562.54.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
