Barclays, British American Tobacco and Hansard

“The FTSE100 was down in early trading with a number of companies going ex-dividend today,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Barclays was among the biggest blue-chip risers in early trading after strong full-year results. The group is also being buoyed by the progress it is making on its restructuring programme which has included the sale of its Africa business. Barclays is accelerating the closure of its non-core units while boosting its presence in Dublin, Frankfurt and Milan to counter any Brexit risks to its European business. Barclays was up by more than 3.2% in early trading.

“British American Tobacco has increased its cigarette market share in its key markets despite challenging trading conditions and the 0.8% decline in volume on an organic basis was considerably better than the industry as a whole, which is estimated to be down by around 3.0%.The group is also seeing growth in its vapour products business.

“Specialist long-term savings provider Hansard Global’s shares plunged after it warned that dividend levels would be reduced by 50% from the 2018 first half. Hansard has declared an unchanged interim dividend for the first half of this year and expects to maintain its final dividend at the same level as in 2016. Hansard’s shares were down by over 13.5% in early trading.”

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