Dixons Carphone, BT and easyJet

“The blue-chip index edged into positive territory as traders await the UK Supreme Court ruling on Article 50 and royal prerogative as regards Brexit, which is due this morning,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“The thirst for the latest must-have technology continues to prove insatiable and boosted Dixons Carphone’s trading over the festive period. The group has now seen five consecutive years of Christmas growth and maintained margins while offering ground-breaking prices during Black Friday and its annual Boxing Day sales. Patchy availability of higher margin phones and tablets made these categories tougher but this gives the group opportunities this year when it does not expect to experience similar issues.

“Telecoms giant BT was the FTSE100’s biggest faller after it confirmed that it expected to take a hit or around £530m on its Italian business. BT had previously estimated that it would have to write down around £145m on the business but an independent probe by KPMG found that the extent and complexity of these issues were far greater and resulted and had resulted in BT overstating the earnings of its Italian business over a number of years. BT’s shares were down by more than 14% in early trading.

“Low-cost airline easyJet was down in early trading after it warned that its profits could be hit by the fall in the pound. The weakness of sterling and the impact of fuel combined are £35m worse than previously expected but easyJet has made good progress in reducing costs in those areas where it has more control such as engineering, maintenance, non-regulated airports and overheads.”

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