Below is a selection of the morning's key market news, earning reports & trending stories - see more here.
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Persimmon (PSN) said strong market demand for new homes saw pretax profit increase 13% for the first half of the year to £516.3m.
New home sales also increased 4% to 8,072 - a total of 278 new homes.
Chief Executive Jeff Fairburn, the highest paid FTSE 100 CEO last year, said: “Customers are continuing to benefit from a competitive mortgage market and confidence remains resilient based on healthy employment trends and low interest rates.
“Our forward sales are 6% ahead of last year at £2.12bn which places the Group in a strong position for the second half of the year.”
Read more here -
Another heavyweight announced results today, with BHP Billiton (BLT) posting a 37% drop in full-year net profit. This was due to writedowns on its US shale assets that are being sold to BP and Merit Energy.
Despite this, full-year underlying earnings increased 33% to $8.9bn in the 12 months up to June.
This was driven by higher prices of oil & copper, with revenue increasing 20% to $43.6bn.The board also announced it would pay a record final dividend of 63.0 US cents per share - a total payout of $1.3bn.
Looking at macro economic concerns, BHP said: “World economic growth strengthened to 3.8 per cent in the 2017 calendar year, with a notable rebound in global trade. A similar outcome is expected in the 2018 calendar year, although downside risks have increased due to rising trade protectionism."
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Wood Group (WG.) today reported a loss of $25.3m for the first half of the year.
Net losses also fell to $52m compared to a $6m profit last year, due to costs around its £2.2bn merger with Amec Foster Wheeler.
Chief Executive Robin Watson said: "Performance in the first half is at the upper end of our guidance range, reflecting continued momentum in trading and delivery of cost and revenue synergies.
“Integration is ahead of schedule and we are increasing our three year cost synergy target from at least $170m to at least $210m.”
Read more here -
Elsewhere, Polymetal International (POLY) saw a 45% increase in half-year profits.
Revenue also increased by 16% to $789m, driven by a 17% increase in gold sales.
Polymetal CEO Vitaly Nesis said: "I am delighted to report strong earnings on the back of solid operational delivery in the first half of the year.
"We expect stronger production and free cash flow generation for the second half and remain focused on steadily progressing our further growth pipeline, including full ramp-up of Kyzyl, while generating meaningful dividends to our shareholders".
Read more here
