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FTSE climbs higher ahead of Bank of England decision
StockMarketWire.com
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The FTSE 100 opened tentatively this morning, as investors await a wealth of corporate earnings news, as well as the Bank of England's monetary policy announcement, both due later today.
On opening, the index was up slightly by 0.20% to 6,521.00, reinstating yesterday's closing dip.
Led by a falling GlaxoSmithKline, the index closed yesterday 0.14% lower at 6,507.82, but this morning's buoyant opening suggests some investor confidence.
Today, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said its diabetes drug Forxiga had been approved in China to reduce the heart failure with reduced ejection fraction in adult patients with and without type-2 diabetes. The news drove its share price up 1% to £73.70.
Royal Dutch Shell has reported a 'stronger balance sheet' in its Q4 report, reducing net debt by $4 billion, and exceeding cash preservation targets, but reported a loss of $3.956 billion for the quarter, bringing the total loss for the year to $21.534 billion.
Its share price reacted positively to the report, however, rising 0.3% in early morning trading to £13.40. Unilever, meanwhile, reported a 3.5% underlying sales growth, pushing net profits up 0.8% to €6.1 billion (£5.38 billion). Despite the positive announcement, its share price tumbled almost 4% to £41.65.
Telecoms company BT said a fall in profit as performance was weighed down ongoing legacy product declines and the impact of Covid-19 on its consumer and its enterprise units. Its share price was up 2.33%, reaching 131.69p.
Severn Trent has said it is 'on track' to deliver its full-year results in line with expectations and has increased its guidance for outperformance on customer ODIs to £50 million. The news saw the company's share price remain relatively flat in the early hours, rising just 0.13% to £23.69.
Elsewhere, foodservice company Compass said organic revenue in its first fiscal quarter fell by more than a third, in line with its expectations, owing to impact of a protracted lockdown measures to contain the virus during the winter months. Its share price rose 3.4% reaching £13.96.
Homebuilder Barratt Developments resumed its dividend payments after reporting an uptick in first-half profit as a rise in completion propped up revenue. Its share price was up 3.2% to 695.14p.
Finally, Petrofac has secured two contracts worth a total of $300 million through Petroleum Development Oman. The positive announcement pushed its share price up 1.6% to 117.65p during early morning trading.
Story provided by StockMarketWire.com
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