The Times - UK (2021-11-11)

the times | Thursday November 11 2021 2GM 59

MarketsBusiness

Exchange rates

Bid Change

Australia $ 1.831 -0.01

Canada $ 1.677 -0.01

Denmark Kr 8.700

Euro ¤ 1.170

Hong Kong $ 10.494 -0.06

Hungary 425.089 +3.78

Indonesia 19203.045 -97.57

Israel Shk 4.196 -0.02

Japan Yen 153.469 +0.43

New Zealand $ 1.901

Norway Kr 11.586 +0.04

Poland 5.402 +0.03

Russia 95.681 -0.18

S Africa Rd 20.698 +0.32

Sweden Kr 11.676 +0.06

Switzerland Fr 1.235

Turkey Lira 13.228 +0.04

USA $ 1.347 -0.01

Rates supplied by Morningstar

Dollar rates

Australia 1.3601-1.3602

Canada 1.2459-1.2460

Denmark 6.4587-6.4592

Euro 0.8684-0.8685

Hong Kong 7.7896-7.7901

Japan 113.95-113.95

Malaysia 4.1470-4.1520

Norway 8.6121-8.6213

Singapore 1.3518-1.3520

Sweden 8.6748-8.6778

Switzerland 0.9169-0.9172

Other Sterling

Argentina peso 134.76-134.77

Australia dollar 1.8304-1.8306

Bahrain dinar 0.5039-0.5109

Brazil real 7.3799-7.3839

Euro 1.1687-1.1688

Hong Kong dollar 10.483-10.485

India rupee 99.962-100.00

Indonesia rupiah 19208-19208

Kuwait dinar KD 0.4049-0.4072

Malaysia ringgit 5.5985-5.6052

New Zealand dollar 1.9012-1.9016

Singapore dollar 1.8192-1.8195

S Africa rand 20.723-20.736

U A E dirham 4.9590-4.9593

Money rates %

Base Rates Clearing Banks 0.10 ECB Refi -0.50 US Fed Fd 0.00-0.25

Halifax Mortgage Rate 3.74

Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 0.009; 3 mth 0.009. Sell: 1 mth 0.000; 3 mth 0.000

1 mth 2 mth 3 mth 6 mth 12 mth

Interbank Rates 0.0528 0.0853 0.1148 0.2926 0.6071

Eurodollar Deps 0.05-0.25 0.06-0.26 0.29-0.44 0.11-0.31 0.23-0.43

Mkt Rates for Range Close 1 month 3 month

Copenhagen 8.6869-8.7169 8.6914-8.6927 52ds 184ds

Euro 1.1721-1.1683 1.1688-1.1687 5pr 18pr

Montreal 1.6742-1.6872 1.6766-1.6769 1pr 4pr

New York 1.3455-1.3564 1.3457-1.3458 1pr 5pr

Oslo 11.506-11.598 11.590-11.603 28pr 173pr

Stockholm 11.617-11.692 11.675-11.679 22ds 137ds

Tokyo 152.80-153.72 153.33-153.39 2ds 14ds

Zurich 1.2324-1.2386 1.2341-1.2342 9ds 32ds

Premium = pr Discount = ds

Sterling spot and forward rates

London Grain Futures
LIFFE Wheat (close £/t)
Nov 214.00 Jan 206.00 Mar 197.00
May 225.00 Jul unq Volume: 734

London Metal Exchange
(Official)

Cash 3mth Dec 22

Copper Gde A ($/tonne)
9790.0-9791.0 9565.0-9570.0 9450.0-9460.0

Lead ($/tonne)
2349.0-2350.0 2323.0-2325.0 2268.0-2273.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne)
3303.0-3305.0 3282.0-3284.0 3163.0-3168.0

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne)
2553.0-2554.0 2573.0-2575.0 2545.0-2550.0

Nickel ($/tonne)
19630.0-19635.0 19500.0-19550.0 19170.0-19220.0

Tin ($/tonne) 15mth
38700.0-38750.0 37300.0-37350.0 33845.0-33895.0

Gold/Precious

metals (US dollars per ounce)

European money

deposits %

Currency

1mth 3mth 6mth 12mth

Dollar

0.13 0.20 0.29 0.55

Sterling

0.05 0.11 0.29 0.61

Euro

0.10 0.15 0.20 0.50

Bullion: Open $1829.74

Close $1852.48-1852.58 High $1866.41

Low $1823.08

AM $1824.40 PM $1827.30

Krugerrand $1732.00-2931.00 (£1286.97-

2177.89)

Platinum $1080.50 (£802.87)

Silver $24.83 (£18.45)

Palladium $2041.50 (£1516.94)

Data as shown is

for information

purposes only. No offer is made by

Morningstar or this publication

D

isney’s
streaming
platform has
suffered its
slowest quarter of
growth since its launch
and the entertainment
conglomerate’s theme
parks have failed to
recover from their
pandemic-enforced
closures as quickly as
expected (Callum
Jones writes).
Despite what Bob
Chapek, its chief
executive, described as
“a very productive year
for The Walt Disney

Company”, the group’s

latest quarterly

earnings fell short of

expectations on Wall

Street last night,

sending its shares

down by 3.1 per cent,

or $5.66, to $168.79

during after-hours

trading.

Total revenue rose

by 26 per cent to

$18.53 billion, but that

was short of forecasts

of $18.8 billion. It

reported net income of

$160 million, having

made a loss of

$710 million in the

same, Covid-affected

period a year ago.

Disney owns film

studios including Pixar

and Marvel, the ESPN

sports and ABC

television networks

to £33.84 after the software developer

reported that its half-year losses had

widened from the year before.

Shares in Indivior tumbled after

Scopia, one of its largest investors,

sold millions of shares in the drugs

company. The sale, representing

about 3 per cent of the FTSE 250

company’s share capital, did not go

down well with investors: the shares

slipped 15p, or 5.8 per cent, to 245½p.

Falling to the bottom of the mid-

caps was JD Wetherspoon, as the

pubs group reported an 8.9 per cent

fall in like-for-like sales during the

third quarter, sending the shares

down 74½p, or 7.2 per cent, to 954½p.

Mitchells & Butlers also suffered,

shedding 7p, or 2.8 per cent, to 241p,

while The Restaurant Group dipped

2½p, or 3.1 per cent, to 80½p.

Among Aim-listed companies, Asos

got investors back onside after a

rocky few weeks since its full-year

results. The retailer leapt 245p, or

9.5 per cent, to £28.22 after revealing

plans to double its profits.

ALAMY

Burberry checked by fears

of sales sliding in China

W

ith investors

pondering what

higher inflation in

China could mean

for Burberry, that

could mean only one thing for the

luxury goods group. It fell towards the

bottom of the FTSE 100.

Chinese factory gate inflation hit a

26-year high last month — and that

hurts Burberry and other expensive

fashion labels heavily reliant on rich

Asian customers for a big chunk of

their sales. Barclays, for example,

expects almost half of Burberry’s

turnover to come from China by

2025.

Such concerns are not a new

phenomenon. The group’s stock has

been somewhat out of fashion in

recent months as President Xi seeks

to crack down on “excessively high

incomes” in a warning to some of the

country’s biggest spenders.

Shares in Burberry fell by more

than 2.5 per cent at one point during

trading yesterday, but closed down

only 20p, or 1 per cent, at £19.67.

Investors can only hope that there are

no more surprises in the half-year

results today.

More UK-focused retail stocks were

in vogue. Shares in Marks & Spencer

rose to their highest level since

December 2019, closing up 32p, or

16.5 per cent, at 226½p after it lifted

profit expectations by 40 per cent.

Halfords rose 55¼p, or 19.8 per

cent, to 334p on the back of the

cycling and car parts retailer

upgrading its full-year profit forecasts.

Investors also threw Next and

JD Sports into their shopping baskets,

with Next rising 246p, or 3.1 per cent,

to £82.62, and JD closing up 34p, or

3.1 per cent, at £11.50½p.

Investors were largely unfazed by

yesterday’s overseas inflation data as

the FTSE 100 gained 66.11 points, or

0.9 per cent, to end the day on

7,340.15. The FTSE 250, home to the

UK’s more domestically focused

companies, added 0.3 per cent, or

66.11 points, to 23,433.25.

Miners of precious metals rallied as

gold prices hit their highest level since

mid-June. Fresnillo led the sector, up

33p, or 3.5 per cent, at 959¼p, while

Polymetal International advanced

42p, or 3 per cent, to £14.49. The rally

extended to the mid-caps as

Petropavlovsk rose 1¾p, or 7.5 per

cent, to 23½p; Centamin added 5½p,

or 5.5 per cent, to 99¾p; and

Hochschild Mining picked up 5½p, or

3.5 per cent, to £1.61¾p.

ITV topped the list of FTSE 100

winners after it said it was on track to

record the highest advertising

revenues in its 66-year history. The

shares rose to their best level since

July, closing up 16½p, or 15.1 per cent,

at 125¾p.

At the other end of the index was

Aveva, which fell 126p, or 3.6 per cent,

Darktrace investor sells shares

technology

M

ike Lynch’s

long-time

public

relations adviser has

pocketed more than

£9 million after

dumping shares in

Darktrace, the

cybersecurity group.

Vanessa Colomar,

who has been by the

entrepreneur’s side at

his recent fraud trial

and extradition

hearings, sold a

£5.43 million stake on

Monday, stock

exchange filings show.

She followed that with

a £3.62 million sale on

Tuesday.

In total, she

offloaded 1.43 million

shares for close to

£9.1 million. She still

owns 5.72 million

shares worth

£34 million.

Colomar, 48, sold

the shares as soon as

she could, having

been locked in for the

first six months since

Darktrace was floated

at 250p in London at

the beginning of May.

She was Lynch’s

communications chief

at Autonomy, the

software company

that he co-founded

and sold to Hewlett

Packard for $11 billion

in 2011. She then

joined Invoke Capital,

his technology

investment vehicle.

Darktrace shares

have tumbled partly

because of fears that

insiders would start

dumping stock as

their lock-ins expired,

while a note from

Peel Hunt knocked a

fifth off the shares at

the end of October.

The stock fell

another 10½p, or

1.7 per cent, to 599½p.

Vanessa Colomar sold

her shares at the

earliest opportunity

Wall Street report

The fastest rise in consumer prices

for three decades in October

sparked a sharp sell-off in US

government bonds and raised fears

of an early rates rise. The Dow

Jones industrial average fell 240.04

points, or 0.7 per cent, to 36,079.94.

Company Change
Marks & Spencer Investors cheer half-year results 16.5%
ITV Quarterly trading update pleases investors 15.1%
Petropavlovsk Benefits from surge in gold prices 7.5%
Centamin Strong gold prices 5.7%
Airtel Africa UBS raises target price 5%
The Restaurant Group Investors avoid sector -3.1%
Aveva Losses widened in last half-year -3.6%
Watches of Switzerland Loses momentum after record high on Tuesday -4.1%
Indivior Biggest shareholder offloads stake -5.7%
JD Wetherspoon Investors disappointed with trading update -7.2%

The day’s biggest movers

and a string of popular

resorts worldwide.

Its Disney+

subscription service,

which quickly amassed

a huge audience during

the pandemic, drew in

only 2.1 million new

users in the three

months to October 2;

less than half the rate

of Netflix and shy of

the ten million

projected by analysts.

The platform now has

118.1 million

subscribers.

Its theme parks

generated operational

income of

$640 million; up from a

quarterly loss of

$945 million during the

same period in 2020,

but shy of forecasts of

$942 million.

Wall St can’t

see Disney’s

plus side

Jessica Newman Market report

Black Widow,

starring Scarlett

Johansson, is

shown on Disney+