Yahoo Finance Trending tickers: BP | HSBC | Greggs | Diageo
A look at the stocks making headlines on Tuesday
Greggs (GRG.L)
Ubiquitous bakery chain Greggs held to its forecasts for higher year-end profits after posting a 14% rise in profits in its half-year update.
Total sales amounted to £844m ($1bn), compared with £694.5m a year before. It posted an underlying pretax profit, excluding exceptional items, of £63.7m. Underlying sales were 16% higher.
It lifted its interim dividend by 7%, to 16 pence a share.
"In the period we continued to open further new shops, extended trading hours into the evening and saw increased participation in the Greggs App," said CEO Roisin Currie.
"Our ambitious plans for growth are on track and our amazing teams are committed to realising the opportunity to become a significantly larger, multichannel business."
Read more: FTSE and European stocks mixed as HSBC launches $2bn share buyback
Despite the uptick, and figures that met expectations, shares fell around 4% in early trade in London.
"Greggs isn't out of the woods just yet. Cost inflation may have eased but it remains unsavoury," said Charlie Huggins, manager of the quality shares portfolio at Wealth Club. "Meanwhile, pressure on the UK consumer could build into the second half as the impact of higher interest rates starts to bite. But Greggs is in a far better position than most retailers and is more than holding its own. Should inflation continue to moderate, the business could really be in a sweet spot."
BP (BP.L)
Oil firm BP's shares were buoyant on Tuesday morning in London following a second quarter earnings report that saw it bring in £2bn in profit. Despite the fact this was considerably less than the $8.5bn gleaned from the same period last year, the company increased its shareholder dividends by 10% to $2.3bn.
It said it will also return $1.5bn to investors over the next quarter via a share buyback.
Read more: UK tax cut for pints and prosecco as 'pubs guarantee' comes into force
The company put the decline in profit down to falling oil and gas markets. This time last year, commodity prices rose rapidly due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The healthy balance sheet also comes as world leaders grapple with dilemmas about stemming climate change, as heatwaves grip parts of Europe.
HSBC (HSBA.L)
HSBC also set out on a buyback spree as it laid out its first-half results, saying it would return $2bn to investors.
The British bank’s net profit more than doubled to $18.1bn (£14.1bn) in the six months to the end of June — a big jump from the $9bn reported for the same period a year earlier.
HSBC announced a second interim dividend of $0.10 per share, and a further share buyback of up to $2bn.
Shares rose around 2.8% in early trade in London.
Diageo (DGE.L)
Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker maker Diageo said it had seen an increase of 6.5% in sales on an organic basis for the last year, a number which just beat analysts' estimates.
The distiller saw falling volumes in the second half but reiterated its guidance for the coming year.
Despite hard economic times, it said it had seen resilience in its customer base, to whom it has passed on mounting costs.
Shares jumped more than 2% following the report.
Watch: BP oil reports £2bn profits as climate crisis triggers extreme heatwaves
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