Trending tickers: Samsung, Kering, Prudential, Greggs
Samsung (005930.KS)
Samsung's share price saw its biggest daily gain in more than six months after Nikkei Asia reported that Nvidia (NVDA) is looking to buy its high-bandwidth memory chips. The move marks a milestone for Korea’s largest company.
Nvidia founder Jensen Huang told reporters his company planned to also use Samsung as a high- bandwidth memory supplier.
“I value our partnership with SK Hynix and Samsung very incredibly,” Huang said.
He added that a future generation of HBM chips called HBM4, was likely to be released in 2025 with more customised designs. Samsung is set to take advantage of having memory chips, chip contract manufacturing and chip design businesses "under one roof to satisfy customer needs".
It comes as the firm also expects $100m (£78.8m) or more of revenue from its next batch of advanced chip-packaging products this year.
Samsung's market share in DRAM chips, used in tech devices, reached 45.5% in the fourth quarter last year, according to data provider TrendForce.
Kering (KER.PA)
Kering warned that first-quarter sales were likely to fall 10% thanks to a weak performance at Gucci, which is forecast to report a 20% slide in quarterly sales.
Shares tumbled as much as 13% on the day, on track for their worst session on record, as the luxury brand faces pressure from weak spending in Asia – usually a region that exhibits strong demand.
"This underscores the economic headwinds facing Asia’s largest economy, China which has been grappling with a cocktail of pressures including its property crisis, deflation and weak consumer confidence," Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor said.
"Fickle fashionistas are known for their changeable tastes and preferences with one brand in one minute and out the next. Gucci was very much the most desirable label back in 2021 but since then its popularity has waned and demand has turned sour."
Read more: FTSE 100 LIVE: European stocks in the red as UK inflation falls to 3.4%
Last month, Kering reported a 6% decline in fourth-quarter 2023 revenues, with sales also falling across all of its other major brands including Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen. Gucci sales specifically were down 4% quarter on quarter.
Prudential (PRU.L)
Prudential shares fell 5% in London despite the company revealing a rise in profits over the past year thanks to “early progress” in its recent growth strategy.
The insurance and asset management firm said it was “increasingly confident” that it will now achieve growth targets for 2027, which it set out following a strategy review last year.
Adjusted operating profits grew 6% to $2.9bn (£2.3bn) in 2023, compared with the previous year, while it also benefited from positive policy sales in Asia and Africa. New business profit increased 45% to $3.1bn,
Anil Wadhwani, chief executive, said the performance was “a very strong set of results while operating in a challenging macro environment”.
"It is also an illustration of the strength of both our agency and bancassurance distribution channels as well as an affirmation of our leadership position in many key markets."
The board approved a second interim dividend of 14.21 cents per share, taking the total dividend to 20.47 cents, up 9% year-on-year
Shares bounced 8% higher after the results, but were then driven lower.
Greggs (GRG.L)
Greggs has been forced to close stores after it was hit by technical problems with payments.
Britain’s biggest bakery chain, which operates more than 2,450 shops across the UK, said: “We are currently experiencing issues accepting payments in our shops. We are working to resolve this as soon as possible.”
Stores across cities such as London, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow have reportedly been affected by problems with card payments.
Other outlets asked customers to place orders outside using the Greggs mobile app before food could be given to them.
It is the latest retailer to experience technical problems. McDonald’s in several countries including the UK, Japan and Australia was hit by a “technology outage” on Friday.
Meanwhile on Saturday, outages to payment systems prevented Sainsbury’s and Tesco stores across the country from accepting contactless card payments and issuing home deliveries.
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