Three things you need to know in the financial markets this morning from investment writer, Tony Cross.
J Sainsbury
Preliminary full year numbers are out from J Sainsbury LON:SBRY this morning, covering the 52 weeks to March 6th. Although the COVID pandemic has had a huge impact on digital sales which increased by more than 100%, underlying profits have fallen by almost 40% as costs in managing the crisis and a significant reduction in fuel sales took a toll. The outlook however remains upbeat with expectations that the profits for the year to March 2022 will be notably higher than those to March 2020. A proposed final dividend of 7.4p per share would bring payouts in line with those for the previous year.
Dixons Carphone
A different end of the retail spectrum here with a pre-close trading update from Dixons Carphone [LON:DC]. Online growth has allowed the company to deliver improved revenues across all territories, with group sales up by 14%. The note adds that digital sales have more than doubled and the medium term outlook remains unchanged. Full year results are due at the end of June.
London Stock Exchange Group
There’s a Q1 trading update out from the London Stock Exchange Group LON:LSEG, covering the period to March 31st. Total income is up 3.9% on a constant currency basis, with fixed income and derivatives capital markets activity proving notable in terms of delivering increased revenues. Elsewhere it looks rather uninspiring and there’s no apparent reference to the reportedly higher than expected integration costs coming off the Refinitiv acquisition and with the share price failing to have made any recovery from the early March sell off, today’s update seems unlikely to change that theme.
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