JD Sports flags profits at lower end of forecasts, Frasers and Boohoo clash over Kamani

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 39 points higher on Thursday, having closed down 0.17% on Wednesday at 8,085.07.

Stocks to watch

JD Sports Fashion said it expected full-year profits to be at the lower end of its forecast range after a “volatile” trading environment in October due to bigger discounts and milder weather which saw third quarter like-for-like sales fall by 0.3% The sportswear retailer forecast profit before tax and adjusting items of £955m to £1.035bn.

Frasers Group urged shareholders to remove Boohoo's executive chairman Mahmud Kamani on Thursday, to appoint Mike Ashley and James Lennon to the Boohoo board. In response, Boohoo announced the appointment of Tim Morris as independent chair, with Kamani transitioning to executive vice chair and committing to governance measures including limiting his influence over board decisions and operations. Frasers, which owns just over 28% of Boohoo, requisitioned a meeting for the appointment of Ashley and Lennon for 20 December, and urged shareholders to remove Kamani at a separate shareholder meeting.

Postal and courier giant International Distribution Services returned to an adjusted operating profit in the first half, as revenues increased across the group and losses at Royal Mail shrank. The company said that Royal Mail was on track to return to a profit for the full year, though the outlook for parcel services division GLS remains uncertain with the macro environment across Europe still “challenging”.

Newspaper round-up

Energy suppliers will spend £500m helping customers with their energy bills this winter, after the government helped broker a deal involving 12 of the biggest companies in the UK. Suppliers will spend the money in a variety of ways, including putting credit on some customers’ bills, writing off the debts of others and putting credit on prepayment meters, sources told the Guardian. – Guardian

Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men, has been indicted in New York over an alleged multi-billion-dollar scheme to pay $250m in bribes and conceal the scheme from US investors. Prosecutors charged the chair of Indian conglomerate Adani Group and two other executives of a renewable energy company with securities fraud and conspiring to commit securities and wire fraud. – Guardian

The City is sticking with its diversity push even as Wall Street investors pressure companies to cut spending on programmes branded “woke” by campaigners. According to the Investment Association, over half its members were forced to cut costs last year, but none chose to scrap diversity initiatives - in direct contrast with their US counterparts who are increasingly abandoning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes. – Telegraph

A pioneering British nuclear fusion company has raised almost £100m and suggested it could have a pilot plant running within a decade, bringing hopes of a near-limitless source of clean electricity closer. Tokamak Energy has raised $125m (£99m) from investors including Lingotto, a fund that manages the wealth of Italy’s billionaire Agnelli family and is chaired by George Osborne. – Telegraph

RedBird IMI is considering providing financial support for a sale of The Telegraph newspapers to a New York entrepreneur as he struggles to secure backing for a bid. Dovid Efune has for weeks been in exclusive talks with RedBird IMI to buy The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph but he has been unable to secure backing for a deal from Hudson Bay Capital and Oaktree Capital. – The Times

US close

US stocks turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday as investors eyed third-quarter results from AI-darling Nvidia and monitored geopolitical tensions with Russia.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.32% at 43,408.47, while the S&P 500 was flat at 5,917.11 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.11% weaker at 18,966.14.

Geopolitical risk continued to dampen market sentiment after Vladimir Putin warned the US that the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons had now been lowered following Joe Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to use US weapons to strike inside Russia.

Under the new doctrine, Russia will consider using nuclear weaponry if it, or its allies, were met with the use of "conventional weapons that created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity".

Also in focus, Nvidia, the world's largest company, reported Q3 earnings that came in ahead of expectations on both the top and bottom lines, with revenue up 94% year-on-year. It also issued some stronger-than-expected Q4 guidance.