Balfour Beatty posts rise in FY earnings, L&G announces £500m buyback
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Wednesday 12 Mar 2025
(Sharecast News) - London open
The FTSE 100 was called to open around 35 points higher.
Stocks to watch
Infrastructure construction specialist Balfour Beatty posted an 11% rise in underlying annual earnings and said it would buy back £125m in shares this year. Profit for 2024 came in at £289m on revenue of £10bn, up from £9.6bn a year earlier.
"The group's long-term outlook remains positive, with the growth forecast in 2025 and 2026 being driven by strong visibility from its high-quality order book, alongside the further opportunities in the energy, transport and defence sectors in the UK and the group's chosen buildings sectors in the US," the company said.
Financial services group Legal & General is to buy back £500m of shares this year after a strong financial performance in 2024, as part of plans to return more than £5bn to shareholders within three years - equal to around 40% of its market capitalisation. Core operating profits were up 6% last year at £1.62bn, with a decline in asset management profits outweighed by growth in the retail and institutional retirement divisions.
Newspaper round-up
The UK's embattled statistics agency cannot reverse a pandemic-era decision to release official data on the state of the economy before financial markets open because its creaking website could crash, it has emerged. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) had sought views on whether to revert to releasing statistics - such as GDP and inflation data - at 9.30am. The releases were moved forward to 7am in March 2020 to allow investors time to digest consequential data - such as the subsequent record contraction in the economy - before the start of London stock market trading at 8am. - Guardian
Toyota has said it plans to build battery vehicles in the UK in the future as it seeks to keep all of its European plants open, although it will be cautious before switching away from fossil fuels. The Japanese company, the world's largest carmaker by sales, said it wanted to retain all eight of its European factories through the transition to electric cars, as it announced two new electric models and promised another three by 2026 under its main brand. It also showed a new electric model under its premium Lexus brand, with two more to come this year. - Guardian
Mental health claims have fuelled a surge in benefits payments post-Covid, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned. New figures show that the number of working-age adults claiming disability benefits across England and Wales has jumped from 2m to 2.9m since 2019, with the increase containing half a million people who cite poor mental health as their main condition. - Telegraph
The owner of the Mirror newspaper is paying more than two-thirds of its cash flow into the pensions fund raided by Robert Maxwell following an intervention by the watchdog over a shortfall of more than £200m. Reach, which also owns the Express and dozens of local newspapers, has agreed to increase its funding for the troubled MGN pension scheme amid concerns it lacked sufficient reserves to pay for its retired employees. - Telegraph
As President Trump was sworn in for a second term on a freezing cold January day in Washington's Capitol Building, the founders and bosses of America's top technology companies were given front row seats as the billionaire "tech bros" made a show of their allegiance to the new president. The promise of deregulation and a fresh wave of deal-making sparked a post-election rally that propelled the share prices of the tech heavyweights higher, some to record levels. - The Times
US close
A step-up in protectionist threats between Canada and the US prompted another negative session on Wall Street on Tuesday, with all three benchmark indices hitting six-month lows.
Also weighing on sentiment was a small business confidence survey which fell to a four-month low, and Citi's downgrade of US equities to 'neutral'.
The Dow slumped 1.1% to 41,433.48 with just four constituents in positive territory, while the S&P 500 fell 0.8% to 5,572.07 and the Nasdaq slipped 0.2% to 17,436.10. All three benchmarks were trading at levels not seen since early-September.
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