Dixons Carphone, Hunting and Hilton Food

“Blue-chips nudged higher in early trading with investors keeping their cards close to their chest ahead of second quarter UK gross domestic product figures and the latest Confederation of British Industry’s distributive trades survey this morning,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Dixons Carphone’s shares plummeted after it warned that full-year pre-tax profits would be well down on last time. The group is being hit by lower mobile handset sales and EU roaming charges while a change in the way it bills customers for its Honeybee software is also expected to lead to a fall in earnings. One of the main problems for the group is that people are not changing their phones as frequently. Upcoming handset launches or the natural lifecycle of phones might reverse this trend but it seems unlikely that overall demand will correct itself this year. Dixons Carphone’s shares were down by more the 25.3% in early trading.

“Energy services group Hunting topped the FTSE250 after a 40% rise in first half revenues. Results from the group’s perforating systems business have exceeded forecasts, thanks to the buoyant US onshore drilling market. But despite trading momentum and order book levels within most of its businesses improving, the outlook for the full year remains dependent on the oil price. Hunting’s shares were up by over 4.2%.

“Hilton Food Group’s shares edged higher after it signed a long term supply agreement with Tesco Central Europe. The deal involves building a state of the art factory in Poland to produce items such as sandwiches, pizza, ready meals and soups and would require an investment of around €6m in plant and equipment, as well as the construction of the factory. Hilton has also agreed to sign a further five year long term supply agreement to continue servicing Tesco's Central European stores with pre-packed meat.”

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