A collection of London’s biggest listed companies reported bumper profits and increased payouts for investors yesterday as the business world bounces back from Covid-19.
More than $10 billion of dividends and buybacks were announced by FTSE 100 companies as Royal Dutch Shell, Anglo American, Diageo, Lloyds Banking Group and AstraZeneca all published strong results.
The FTSE 100 rose 0.9 per cent as several companies upgraded their forecasts, with shares in Rentokil Initial up 6.8 per cent, Informa 5.7 per cent and Anglo American 5.4 per cent.
Lloyds revealed in its results that it had upgraded its forecasts for GDP and house price growth for the year. Its base case is that GDP will rise by 5.5 per cent and house prices by 5.6 per
