DIY bonanza spruces up Howden Joinery shares
NOBODY could have predicted that 2020 would be the year of home improvements and DIY.
During the first lockdown, people who were suddenly forced to spend more time in their houses turned en masse to replace broken lightbulbs, repaint walls and do the small jobs to spruce up space that suddenly had to double as an office too.
Then after lockdown came the big overhauls and renovations people had months to plan, and this was when kitchen fitter and Royal Warrant-holder Howden Joinery began to clean up.
The group, which has made 6m kitchens and also sells skirting boards and sliding wardrobe doors, said yesterday it expects annual profits to be around 10pc above the top- end of analyst forecasts. The current consensus r anges between £ 123m and £152m, so profits are likely to be at least £160m.
Turnover is still around 5pc below last year but investors were relieved that trading held up well even during England’s second nationwide lockdown.
Its stock closed 4.5pc higher, up 29p, to 671.2p.
Balfour Beatty backers, however, were harder to please despite it saying it will pay a final dividend and launch a £50m share buyback scheme next year.
The construction group and HS2 contractor estimates turnover will be roughly the same as last year’s £8.4bn. Its order book has been bolstered by £3bn of contracts for the high-speed rail link and several international projects.
But shares closed down 0.7pc, or 1.8p, to 266.6p.
The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 were still marking time as traders were again holding their breath for news of a Brexit deal.
But London’s two premier indexes just managed to stay in the black as Boris Johnson dropped the threat to renege on the Withdrawal Agreement and headed to Brussels for a highstakes dinner with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
The blue-chip index rose 0.1pc, or by 5.47 points, to 6564.29 and the mid-cap index by 0.1pc, or 13.4 points, to 19,883.89 as there were no breakthroughs during the market’s 8am to 4.30pm trading hours. The Footsie rose despite the pound rising, edging towards $1.35 at its peak, as traders crossed their fingers that the UK would not crash out without a deal.
When sterling climbs it often drags the Footsie into the red as it weighs on the shares in big dollar-earning companies.
The water-treading in London came amid global record highs, with MSCI’s gauge of world stocks rising to a record 635.65, up 0.2pc.
Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air has hired two executives who were previously at rivals after months of adding routes, despite Covid almost wiping out the number of people taking its flights.
Wizz (up 1.8pc, or 86p, to 4750p) has carved out a new role for former Easyjet (up 2.2pc, or 18.8p, to 873.8p) commercial boss Robert Carey, who will be president.
And it will bring in Michael Delehant to take over from operations boss Diederik Pen. Delehant was previously the strategy boss at Vueling – the Spanish budget carrier which is in British Airways-owner IAG’s (up 1.9pc, or 3p, to 164.2p) stable of airlines.
Commercial landlord Land Securities has also created new roles in its senior leadership team, including promoting the director of its London and retail portfolio Colette O’Shea as its first operations boss.
Shares in Landsec, which owns the famous advertising displays in Piccadilly Circus, rose 2.3pc, or 16.4p, to 719.9p.