WPP, Laura Ashley and Costain

“The FTSE100 opened in negative territory with investors looking to a raft of eurozone manufacturing and services data this morning and similar figures from the US this afternoon along with an update on new home sales,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Advertising giant WPP was the biggest faller in early trading after cutting growth forecasts. The group’s headline pre-tax profits for the first six months were 15% up on a year ago but top line revenue and net sales organic growth continues to be under pressure. For this year, growth is now expected to be zero to 1.0% with weaker comparatives in the second half of 2016 aiding growth this year and 2018 is unlikely to be much different. WPP’s shares were down by over 8%.

“Laura Ashley’s shares fell after a 3.1% drop in like-for-like sales in the year to the end of June. Trading conditions have been challenging and the pound’s weakness contributed to an overall fall in profits. The group is not paying a final dividend and the interim payout of 0.5p per share was down 2.5p a year ago. One bright spot for the group, though, is its online performance where like-for-like sales were up by 5.6%. Laura Ashley’s shares were down by more than 3.7%.

“Costain was an early riser following a confident full-year forecast on the back of a strong first half performance with a 34% growth in underlying operating profit and a 10% interim dividend increase. The order book was down slightly at £3.7bn compared with £3.9bn a year ago but over 90% continues to be repeat business and tendering levels remain high. Costain’s shares were up by over 2.2%.”

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