Clean-ups, pits and jets

The headline was broadly unchanged in early trading after closing higher yesterday and despite strong overnight sessions on Wall Street and in Asia.

“Royal Bank of Scotland’s (LSE:RBS) plans to clean up its core businesses failed to impress investors who baulked at the costs sending its shares sliding in early trading,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“The taxpayer-backed bank is setting aside another £500m to pay for PPI and £1.5bn for bad housing debts in the US which means it will make yet another loss. It’s another bitter pill but putting legacy issues behind it is essential if Chancellor George Osborne is going to off-load the government’s stake during this parliament.

“Heavyweight miners were also down in early trading after further falls in Chinese shares. Antofagasta (LSE:ANTO) suffered the sharpest drop despite reporting a strong final quarter although overall output for the year was down.

“Low-cost airline Wizz Air (LSE:WIZZ) has lifted its underlying full year profit guidance after passenger number increased by more than 23% in the third quarter. This was ahead of forecasts with the airline seeing robust trading across all its markets.”

Wednesday 27 January 2016 

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