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Kingfisher upgrades FY guidance, Beazley warns of growth slowdown
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Tuesday 25 Nov 2025
(Sharecast News) - LONDON PRE-OPEN
The FTSE 100 was expected to open 20.3 points lower ahead of the bell on Tuesday after wrapping up the previous session 0.05% softer at 9,534.91.
STOCKS TO WATCH
Insurance giant Beazley warned on Monday that premium growth had slowed and renewal rates had fallen in the nine months ended 30 September, with weakness in cyber risks and softer conditions across several specialty lines weighing on performance. Beazley said investment income had also come in lower year‑on‑year, reflecting tougher market conditions, even as underwriting discipline continued to underpin profitability. Gross written premiums rose just 1% during the period to $4.67bn and net premiums were up 4% at $3.92bn, while renewal rates fell 4%, compared with flat pricing a year earlier, highlighting competitive pressures. However, despite the weaker growth backdrop, Beazley upgraded its combined ratio guidance to the low 80s, citing benign catastrophe activity and continued underwriting discipline.
B&Q-owner Kingfisher upgraded its full-year outlook on Tuesday, despite market conditions softening in the UK and Poland. Updating on third-quarter trading, the FTSE 250 retailer said underlying sales rose by 0.9% in the three months to 31 October, driven by growth in both volumes and transactions. Kingfisher, which also owns Screwfix, Castorama and Brico Depot, among others, acknowledged that conditions remained difficult in some of its core markets. But despite that, it boosted full-year profit guidance to between £540m to £570m, compared to £480m to £540m.
Budget airline EasyJet upgraded forecasts for its holiday division after posting a 9% rise in full-year pre-tax earnings to a better-than-expected £655m. EasyJet said holidays delivered profits of £250m, hitting its medium-term target early resulting in a new target of £450m by 2030. It added that forward bookings for the first quarter of the current year were 81% sold.
Catering giant Compass reported strong underlying sales growth in the fiscal year ended 30 September, driven by a solid performance in North America and good client retention. Revenues totalled $46.1bn, up 8.7% on an organic basis, with North American sales up 9.1% and international sales up 7.7%. Strong top-line growth, along with a slight improvement in margins, helped underlying operating profit rise 11.7% to $3.34bn.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
Up to 3m low-skilled jobs could disappear in the UK by 2035 because of automation and AI, according to a report by a leading educational research charity. The jobs most at risk are those in occupations such as trades, machine operations and administrative roles, the National Foundation for Educational Research said. - Guardian
Social media platforms are being urged to limit internet "pile-ons" under new guidelines to protect women and girls online. The guidance from Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, to combat misogynist abuse, coercive control and the sharing of intimate images without consent comes into force on Tuesday and includes recommendations to prevent women being harried online. - Guardian
The number of graduates still unemployed more than a year after leaving university has surged by 8,000 amid a youth jobs crisis. A poll of 2023 university leavers by Prospects at Jisc, a graduate careers website, found that 6.2% of graduates - or 56,900 - were still out of work 15 months after ending their studies. That was up from 5.6% or 48,700 in the previous year. - Telegraph
Heathrow Airport has won Government backing for its £49bn third runway plan after rival proposals for a shorter, cheaper landing strip from a billionaire hotel tycoon were rejected. The company's blueprint for the landmark project is set to be confirmed by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander on Tuesday after ministers rejected a rival bid by hotel boss Surinder Arora to build a truncated runway. - Telegraph
A "bruised" government left "with little room for manoeuvre" is presiding over an incoherent strategy, the outgoing chairman of the CBI has said. Rupert Soames, in closing remarks to the business lobby group's annual conference in London, said "few would have predicted how far and how fast the government has lost its confidence and room for manoeuvre". - The Times
US CLOSE
US stocks posted strong gains on Monday, with major indices rising for the second straight day, as a decent rebound in the AI sector helped to repair some of the damage done by the recent tech-fuelled sell-off.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.44% at 46,448.27, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.55% to 6,705.12 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 2.69% firmer at 22,872.01.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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