BUSINESS LIVE: Wickes hikes profit forecast; Selfridges chief’s return

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BUSINESS CLOSE: FTSE 100 ends flat; Nationwide appoints Debbie Crosbie as CEO; Wickes boosts profit guidance; markets slash odds on December interest rate rise

By Mike Sheen For This Is Money

Published: | Updated:


The FTSE 100 has closed more or less flat, or just 7 points lower at 7,122.3, but still managed to post a 1 per cent weekly gain, recovering some of last week’s Omicron-related losses. 

Meanwhile, the more UK-focused FTSE 250 fell 0.2 per cent to 22,646.08. 

In company news, home improvement retailer Wickes has raised its full-year profit guidance, having continued to trade well in its fourth quarter so far.

And the sale of Selfridges to Thai businessmen will see the return of Vittorio Radice to the retailer he ran two decades ago. 

Elsewhere, Michael Saunders, the biggest inflation hawk on the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee who voted for a rate hike last month, said there could be advantages in waiting for more evidence before raising rates.

Investors are now pricing in only a 33 per cent chance of a December rate hike. 

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Wickes has continued to trade well in the home improvement retailer’s fourth quarter so far

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