BUSINESS LIVE: Metro Bank eyes return to profit; HSBC lines-up buyback; Taylor Wimpey profits slip

Standard Chartered is launching its largest ever share buyback following a surge in profits.

The British lender will return £1.2billion to investors after it reported a strong first half of the year as profits soared 21 per cent to £3.1billion in the six months to the end of June.

Meanwhile, chief executive Bill Winters praised Labour for being a ‘serious government’ and ‘supportive of business’.

Women are drinking more Guinness than ever before as the surge in its popularity shows no sign of abating.

Announcing its full-year results, Guinness maker Diageo said 27 per cent more women were drinking the ‘Black Stuff’ compared to last year.

It comes as celebrities such as reality TV star Kim Kardashian and pop stars Olivia Rodrigo and Beyonce continue to bolster the drink’s ‘cool’ reputation after posting pictures sipping pints.

GSK has cut its forecast for 2024 vaccine sales after quarterly revenue from its blockbuster shingles and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) jabs missed expectations, sending its shares lower.

CEO Emma Walmsley’s bet on infectious disease drugs and vaccines, including new blockbuster respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Arexvy, has been paying off as GSK faces a combination of patent expiries and declining revenue from current best-sellers by the end of this decade.

But second-quarter sales of Arexvy, which launched in the U.S. last year and took two-thirds of the market in a blow to Pfizer’s rival jab, came in at £62million, below analysts’ average forecast of £70million.

Taylor Wimpey expects to build as many as 10,000 homes this year on the back of a second-half bounce back, after high interest rates dented demand and hammered profits in the first half.

The FTSE 250 housebuilder posted a 22.6 per cent plunge in operating profits to £182.3million for the six months ending 30 June, with sales down 7 per cent and home completions falling by around 7.7 per cent to 4,728.

Taylor Wimpey pinned the blame on ‘the delay in interest rate cuts and comparatively high mortgage rates’.

Metro Bank expects to return to profitability in the fourth quarter of the year after narrowing losses in the first half.

The high street lender posted an underlying pretax loss of £26.8million for the first six months of the year, down from a loss of £33million in the second half of 2023. In the first half of 2023, the firm reported profit of £16.1million.

The bank said the loss was due to a lower net interest margin –  the spread between the interest banks earn on loans and the interest they pay to borrow – of 1.64 per cent, compared with 1.85 per cent in the second half of last year.

HSBC will buy back another $3billion worth of shares from investors after the lender profits beat expectations in the first half, boosted by growth in its wealth division.

The FTSE 100-listed lender’s pre-tax profits fell 0.4 per cent to $21.6billion in the first half of the year, but beat analysts’ estimates of $20.5billion.

The $3billion share buyback scheme follows a $5billion buyback announced earlier this year, bringing the total value of share buybacks to $18billion during outgoing CEO Noel Quinn’s four-year tenure.

The FTSE 100 is up 1.4 per cent in midday trading, as it closes in on an intraday all-time high of 8,474.71.

The rally comes amid broader weakness in equity markets and marks growing expectations that the Bank of England wil cut base rate by 25 basis points to 5 per cent.

Energy and mining stocks lead gains, while strong corporate updates from the likes of HSBC also drive the index onwards.