Taylor Wimpey, DCC and DiamondCorp

“The FTSE100 opened on the front foot following mixed turns on Wall Street and in Asia, with crude oil now convincingly below $45 a barrel and gold trading below $1215 an ounce,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“The outlook for housebuilder Taylor Wimpey remains bullish with the housing market continuing to show a high level of customer confidence. Underlying trading is stable across the group’s core geographic areas. The group is fully sold for its targeted 2016 completions and is building its order book for 2017 and beyond. Build costs are expected to increase by 3-4% during this year with the majority of cost pressures coming from labour. Skilled availability has improved but not at the same pace as the increase in new home supply.

“Distribution and support services group DCC led the blue-chip board in early trading on a strong first half performance and deals to acquire Gaz Europeen, a leading French natural gas retail and marketing business, and Medisource, a pharmaceutical procurement, sales and marketing business in Ireland . DCC’s operating profits were up by a third and the group delighted investors with a 12.5% rise in the interim dividend. The results reflect the continued execution of DCC’s strategy to grow the business organically, deliver a very strong cash flow performance and redeploy capital at attractive rates of return.

“DiamondCorp’s shares have been suspended after the group was forced to halt production at the Lace mine near Kroonstad in the region of Free State, in South Africa, after a flash flood on Friday. The mine’s pumping systems were overwhelmed when nearly 90mm of rain, which is almost one-third of the mine's annual rainfall, fell in just over an hour. No production will be possible in the short-term as the longhole drill rig which was operating at the time of the flood will need to be recovered and the electrics rebuilt. This could take up to 12 weeks from the time of recovery.”

These articles are for information purposes only and are not a personal recommendation or advice.