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Business - Need to Know

Afternoon Edition

Good afternoon. Economic growth last year was better than originally estimated and further ahead of other G7 countries than previously thought, according to official statistics that will give the government a timely pre-election boost.

Britain expanded by 2.8 per cent in 2014, rather than 2.6 per cent, after growth in the final three months of last year was revised up from 0.5 per cent to 0.6 per cent. The improvement came on the back of better exports and rising household spending, alongside a robust services sector. Philip Aldrick, our Economics Editor, has more here.

We also had a raft of eurozone economic news this morning, including unemployment and inflation data. Log on to our Business Now live blog for more.

On the corporate front, the owner of B&Q is to shut 60 stores, putting 3,000 jobs in jeopardy, in an admission that Britain simply has too many cavernous home improvement superstores.

Kingfisher this morning revealed a drop in both its annual sales and profits. Véronique Laury, the company’s new chief executive, said she was making a series of what she termed “sharp decisions” to shake up the organisation. Andrew Clark has the full story.

And finally, thanks to those who spotted my unintended "board" pun in this morning's email. Apologies.

Richard Fletcher
Business Editor
The Times
richard.fletcher@thetimes.co.uk

The stock market has given back all of Monday’s gains, and more. With the FTSE 100 on course for its best quarter in two years, but off 76 points at 6,814 this morning, traders smelled profit taking by fund managers.

Miners are weighing again, with iron ore bumping along at a 10-year low and gold staring at a third quarterly loss. Anglo American is off 31p at £10.29, while Glencore is down 5.25p at 286.5p.

Meggitt is 18p lower 545p after Exane BNP Paribas kicked off coverage of the defence and aerospace engineer by telling clients it thought the shares would “underperform”.

The same French broker is pushing Babcock International, the engineering contractor building aircraft carriers and patrol boats for the Royal Navy, training the armed forces and decommissioning Britain’s aged nuclear power stations. Exane, and positive comment from JPMorgan Cazenove, another broker, has lifted the shares 25.5p to 988.5p.

Gary Parkinson
Market Reporter

Consumer prices fell by 0.1 per cent in the eurozone this month, led by lower energy costs, according to Eurostat.

GoDaddy, the web-hosting firm, is expected to price its IPO today in one of the highest profile tech offerings of the year so far. Acquired by KKR, Silver Lake and TCV for $2.25 billion in 2011, the online registrar manages about a fifth of the world's internet domains. GoDaddy plans to continue a shift toward higher-margin website building services while managing its debt, according to Renaissance Capital, the IPO specialist. The expected pricing is between $17 and $19 per share. If priced at the top of its range, the company would be valued at $2.87 billion. Shares are expected to start trading tomorrow.

Warren Buffett became the latest billionaire to buy into the car dealership industry when his Berkshire Hathaway's acquisition of the Van Tuyl Group, the largest privately-held dealership group in the US, closed this month. He will share his wisdom with an auditorium full of car dealers at 7pm BST, during a conference in New York sponsored by the National Auto Dealers Association.

The S&P/Case Shiller composite house price index of 20 metropolitan areas is out at 2pm BST. It is expected to have gained 4.5 per cent in January from the prior year, same as the previous month.

The US Conference Board is scheduled to release its latest reading on consumer confidence at 3pm BST. It is expected to show a marginal drop in March, coming in at 96, compared with 96.4 in the prior month.

Markets: Futures suggest a negative day on Wall Street. The Dow Jones is expected to open down 83 points at 17,777, the S&P to fall 10.50 points to 2,065, and the Nasdaq to drop 18.75 points to 4,353.75.

Alexandra Frean
US Business Editor
@freanie

The company's circular fails to engage on matters of substance and resorts to personal attacks in a manner unbecoming of directors of a public company
Elliott Advisors escalate the war of words with Alliance Trust over a boardroom shake-up
Today's FTSE 100 risers and fallers
Up (%)
Kingfisher 3.09
Babcock International Group 2.7
Tesco 1.47
Marks and Spencer Group 1.3
Persimmon 1.15
* As at noon
Down (%)
Meggitt -3.55
Anglo American -2.97
Aviva -2.73
Friends Life Group -2.65
Imperial Tobacco Group -2.57
* As at noon
The Markets Today
FTSE 100 6,814.83 -1.11%
FTSE 250 17,126.55 -0.47%
Cac 5,073.38 -0.2%
Dax 12,019.33 -0.55%
Brent Crude 56.20 -1.89%
Gold 1,184.50 -0.02%
GBP/US 1.4803 -0.03%
GBP/euro 1.3778 0.82%
10Y Gilt 131.406 0.05%
* As at noon
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