THE DAILY BRIEFING

ROBOTS TAKEOVER

An electronics company which supplies Apple and Samsung has replaced 60,000 staff with robots. Foxconn, the Taiwanese company which assembles iPhones and iPads, has brought in machines to perform repetitive tasks and axed more than half its 110,000 staff at a factory in China.

WASTE PAYS

Water company Pennon has marginally increased profits thanks to growth in its waste management business.

The firm, which owns South West Water and Bournemouth Water, reported pre-tax profits up 0.3pc to £211.3m in the year to the end of March. Profits at South West Water fell 4.9pc to £159.7m but earnings at its Viridor waste recycling business rose 45pc to £116.5m.

POSTAL DELIVERY

Postal tech company Escher saw shares rise yesterday after it announced a contract with Saudi Arabia’s mail service.

The AIM-listed firm, which provides outsourced technology to the postal industry, provides its software to process mail to Saudi Post.

CONTRACT BOOST

Shares in a leading graphene maker jumped after it announced a two-year contract with an oil company in Myanmar.

Graphene NanoChem, which is listed on the junior stock market, makes the material, which is just one atom thick, for use in improving drills for the oil and gas sectors. Shares rose 3.9pc, or 0.5p, to 13.5p.

WIZZ FIZZ

Cheap oil helped budget airline Wizz Air post betterthan-expected annual profits.

The Hungarian firm, which floated on the London Stock Exchange last year, shrugged off fears over terrorism to show a boost in passenger numbers to Romania, Poland and Serbia. Pre-tax profit increased to £152m for the year to March 31 2016 from £144m on sales of £1bn.

Shares fell 39p to 1950p.

DIXONS SUCCESS

Currys-owner Dixons Carphone said sales at stores open more than a year rose 5pc in the fourth quarter and it expects profit to be between £445m and £450m, a 17pc increase on the previous year.

UK sales in stores open for more than a year rose 4pc in the quarter and 6pc over the full year. Shares fell 0.1pc or 0.5p to 447.6p.

DEADPOOL WINNER

City financier Guy Hands, 56, has outlined plans to expand the Odeon cinema chain by opening 20 theatres. Hands, who runs the private equity firm Terra Firma, wants eight more cinemas in the UK and 12 on the continent.

All will offer luxury seats and let people order food by pressing a button in the chair.

Odeon profits rose to £31m, up 22pc, in the quarter to March 31 which it said was down to the success of the latest Marvel blockbuster, Deadpool.