Yahoo Finance Trending tickers: Currys | Shell | Robert Walters | Meta
The latest investor updates on stocks that are trending on Thursday
Currys (CURY.L)
Electronics retailer Currys has revealed a dip in sales for the past year as it flagged an “uncertain” economic outlook.
The group also said it is not paying a final dividend and would be prudent in its planning as it is concerned about the economic outlook in its main markets.
"Looking ahead, we're wary of optimism about consumer spending power. Accordingly, we're being prudent in our planning, and in further strengthening our balance sheet," CEO Alex Baldock said.
Currys reported a 38% fall in full year profit, hurt by the weak performance of its Nordics business.
Adjusted pretax profit came in at £119m ($151m) in the year to 29 April — in line with its latest guidance but down from the £192m a year earlier. Revenue fell 6% to £9.5bn.
Read more: Some retailers are overcharging customers, warns Bank of England
“The big frustration for Currys is it has made decent strides in getting its business in the UK and Ireland on track, despite the difficult consumer backdrop putting pressure on sales. Profit in this part of the business was up by an eye-catching 45% as it eked out significant cost savings to compensate for lower volumes,” AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould, said.
“The bumper loss reported today is a bit misleading as it includes a £511m accounting charge relating to the 2014 merger of Dixons and Carphone — it’s important to note that this does not represent cash going out of the business,” he added.
Shell (SHEL.L)
The boss of Shell has warned it would be “dangerous and irresponsible” to cut oil and gas production during an inflation crisis.
Wael Sawan also warned that energy prices and bills could soar again if there is a double-whammy of increased demand from China and a cold winter in Europe.
The Shell chief executive insisted that the world still "desperately needs oil and gas" as moves to renewable energy were not happening fast enough to replace it.
Read more: Stocks that are trending today
Emily Shuckburgh, a climate scientist at the University of Cambridge, said companies like Shell should speed up their green transition “rather than trying to suggest the most vulnerable in society are in any way best served by prolonging our use of oil and gas”.
Sawan told the BBC: “I respectfully disagree.”
He added: “What would be dangerous and irresponsible is cutting oil and gas production so that the cost of living, as we saw last year, starts to shoot up again.”
Sawan also refused to rule-out Shell moving its headquarters and stock market listing to the United States. Shares in American oil companies are generally worth more than UK-based firms.
Robert Walters (RWA.L)
Robert Walters posted lower second-quarter net fee income on Thursday as the recruitment firm struggled with global market uncertainty.
Group net fee income fell 11% to £99.9m in the second quarter of the year as it said “global market uncertainty continuing to impact both candidate and client confidence”.
The figure was much worse in the US, falling 47% year-on-year amid significant disruption to hiring across both technology and financial services.
UK net fee income slumped 21% as high inflation and interest rates dented confidence.
"Structural recruitment market fundamentals including job vacancy levels, salary inflation and candidate shortages are still holding strong which continues to suggest that when market confidence recovers there will likely be an increase in demand and candidate movement across all areas of recruitment,” chief executive officer, Toby Fowlston, said.
Read more: LIVE: FTSE slips to lowest level since March amid interest rate fears
Elsewhere fees in China slumped 37% with the anticipated bounceback from COVID lockdowns failing to materialise.
Neil Shah, director of research at Edison Group, said: “The weakening global job market, combined with the macroeconomic impact of high inflation and interest rates in the UK, has contributed to decreased confidence in recruitment.
“Additionally, the technology and financial services sectors, crucial to recruiters throughout the UK, have become volatile, resulting in reduced activity as companies in these industries scale back hiring following widespread layoffs.”
Meta (META)
Meta Platform rose to a 52-week high after the company launched a Twitter-like social app, Threads.
Built by the firm's Instagram team, it's billed as a home for "sharing text updates and joining public conversations".
Threads is a “text-based conversation app” where users are able to publish posts up to 500 characters long, and include links, photos and videos.
The app appears to have many similarities to Twitter, from the layout to the product description. The listing, which first appeared earlier this week as a teaser, emphasises its potential to build a following and connect with like-minded people.
“Facebook has launched its Twitter rival…the ‘hellscape’ that we predicted Twitter has become has been good for Meta,” Neil Wilson from Finalto said.
Watch: Meta claims 10 million sign-ups in seven hours for Twitter rival Threads
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