Thursday morning business bulletin
Feb 7 2008 By Andrew Mernin
Shares in BT and Yell tumbled today after the telecoms-based pair delivered disappointing third quarter results.
The mood of the market was not helped by trading in New York and nervousness ahead of the Bank of England’s decision on interest rates later today.
With the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 0.5% lower, the Footsie slipped in the first hour of trading today - down 34.5 points to 5840.9.
Yell was the biggest faller after the Yellow Pages and Yell.com directories business lowered guidance for the current quarter because of the weaker economic environment in the UK.
Budget airline easyJet today stuck to predictions of a 20% profits hike this year, despite growing headwinds from tougher trading conditions.
The company’s unchanged guidance for the year to September 30 struck a more upbeat note than Dublin-based rival Ryanair, which this week warned profits could fall as much as 50% in the 12 months to March 2009.
Easyjet said its load factor - a key measure of how full its aircraft are - fell 2.9% in January, although bookings for February and March showed an "improving trend".
It added: ``Forward bookings are in line with expectations despite the uncertain macro-economic environment."
Price hikes at the end of last year enabled consumer products giant Unilever to deliver a 7% rise in annual pre-tax profits today.
The company, which makes Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Dove soap, posted a better-than-expected 6.1% rise in underlying sales for the fourth quarter of the year, with almost half of the improvement stemming from higher prices.
Unilever said the price hikes were the result of ``sharply higher" commodity costs, which it also offset through cost savings. Pre-tax profits for the group were £3.87bn, up 11% at constant exchange rates.
The pound at 8am was US$1.9587 compared to US$1.9598 at the previous close while the euro at 8am was £0.7463 compared to £0.7469 at the previous close.
See nebusiness.co.uk throughout the day for the latest on the Bank of England's decision on interest rates.
