Petrol stations sale helps boost Co-op profits
The Co-operative Group has hailed a "strong operation performance" over the past year as cost cutting and the sale of its petrol forecourt business helped the firm boost profits.
The retail-to-funerals business said it benefited from "early and targeted action" against the tough economic backdrop, which included a shake-up which cut about 400 jobs last summer.
It reported that pre-tax profits increased to £247m for 2022 from £190m in the previous year.
It said it would have fallen to a loss but received £319m of profit from the sale of its 132 petrol forecourts to rival Asda.
Good morning
House vendors accepting price discounts are selling properties with reductions of 4pc or £14,000 on average, according to a website.
Zoopla said that, despite demand for homes to purchase being lower than it was a year ago, improved choice and realism among sellers is helping to drive sales.
The website tracks the first asking price and agreed selling price for many house sales. It said the £14,000 discount is the median average, excluding homes that were sold with no price reduction.
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What happened overnight
Stocks struggled to make headway while the dollar nursed losses as signs of a slowing US labour market made investors nervous about the economic outlook.
Asia trade was thinned by holidays in Hong Kong and China, leaving MSCI's Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan faring little better than flat.
Japan's Nikkei fell 1.7pc to end at 27,813.26 and recorded its biggest one-day percentage fall since mid-March. Tokyo's broader Topix index lost 1.9pc to 1,983.84.
Wall Street stocks declined on Tuesday as investors reacted to new data showing US job openings in February dropped to the lowest level in nearly two years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6pc to 33,402.38, while the tech rich Nasdaq Composite declined by 0.5pc to 12,126.33.
The broad-based S&P 500 index lowered by 0.6pc to 4,100.6, following reports that new orders for US manufactured goods dropped for second consecutive month in February amid waning demand for civilian aircraft.
Meanwhile, yields on US government bonds retreated as signs of a slowing economy fuel bets that the Federal Reserve could loosen monetary policy.
The yield on two-year Treasuries, which typically move in line with interest rate expectations, shed 14 basis points to 3.840pc. The benchmark 10-year yield dipped nine basis points to 3.342pc.