Supermarkets, insurers and blockbusters

The FTSE 100 took its cue from positive overnight sessions on Wall Street and in Asia and edged higher in early trading, confounding forecasts that it would drift into negative territory ahead of today's ECB press conference.

“Supermarket price wars have taken their toll on Morrisons which saw underlying pre-tax profits fall from £345m to £242m in the year to the end of January,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Morrisons will be hoping that its new tie-up with Amazon’s ‘Pantry’ service will help to turnaround its fortunes and as future dividends will be aligned with the long-term performance of the company, shareholders will be sharing those sentiments.

“Insurance giant Aviva topped the blue-chip board in early trading after operating profits rose by 20% and it revealed that it would achieve cost savings from its acquisition of Friends Life a year ahead of schedule.

“Cineworld had another record year with more than 93 million customers going to see its movies in 2015. The film slate was strong with Bond and Star Wars among the blockbusters and the group also benefited from cost savings following the successful integration of Cinema City International.”

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