Investors seek momentum in Aberdeen figures – Daily Business

Aberdeen Group will announce its first results since the rebrand and investors will be keen to see if chief executive Jason Windsor has been able to maintain the momentum of improved performance.

Profit and assets under administration and management were up last year and group outflows slowed as Mr Windsor promised this was just the start of the Edinburgh-based company’s recovery.

He has set out a strategy to become “a leading Wealth & Investments group, with new 2026 targets”. 

It may be too soon for any update on the search for a successor to chairman Sir Douglas Flint, with more focus on asserting stability on the executive team following a number of changes.

HSBC first-quarter results

HSBC’s shares had come within a whisker of 2001’s all-time high back in March, just before President Donald Trump announced his reciprocal tariffs on ‘Liberation Day’ on 2 April.

They have fallen by around a sixth since then, so analysts will want to hear if chief executive Georges Elhedery is as upbeat now as he was at the time of the 2024 full-year results in February.

Back then, Mr Elhedery and the board felt confident enough to sanction an increased dividend, a new $2 billion share buyback and raise targets for return on equity in 2026 and 2027.

Shell first quarter

The oil major’s first-quarter results could have wider implications, say analysts at AJ Bell.

The prices of oil and natural gas have fallen sharply in the past month, thanks to worries about the impact of tariffs on global growth and thus demand for hydrocarbons.

Shell’s share price has not been helped by early April’s lukewarm trading update, which flagged the impact of bad weather and maintenance in Australia upon natural gas output.

For the moment, analysts expect a 6% increase in full-year pre-tax income to $31.6 billion, but given trends in the oil and gas price, AJ Bell says it seems logical to assume earnings will come in lower in the first quarter of 2025 than they did in the first three months of 2024.

Apple second quarter

Despite the apparent ‘Apple exemption’ to President Trump’s tariffs, the company’s shares are now in bear market territory, down by more than a fifth from December’s peak, even if that still leaves the market capitalisation only just shy of $3 trillion.

That is still enough to mean Apple is the world’s most highly valued company on that basis, even if shareholders and analysts, and management, are still grappling with the possible implications for the cost of manufacturing Apple’s gadgets and demand for them, especially given the importance of China and Asia more widely on both counts.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh did not give much by way of guidance alongside the first quarter results, and analysts are unsure of which way to turn, as the last sixty days show three upgrades and three downgrades to estimates.

Diary

Monday 28 April

• Nationwide UK house price index
• Canadian general election

Tuesday 29 April

• Quarterly results from AstraZeneca, BP, Entain, HSBC
• First-half results from Associated British Foods
• BRC UK Shop price index

Wednesday 30 April

• First-half results from Aston Martin Lagonda
• Quarterly results or trading updates from Aberdeen Group, Glencore, Barclays, GSK, Prudential, Next, Haleon, SEGRO, Smith & Nephew, Taylor Wimpey, Spectris and OSB
• Purchasing managers indices for manufacturing and service industries from China

Thursday 1 May

• Full-year results from Whitbread
• First-half results from Tracsis
• Quarterly results or trading updates from London Stock Exchange, Lloyds Banking, Endeavour Mining, Persimmon, Lancashire and Morgan Sindall
• UK purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for manufacturing
• UK mortgage approvals
• In the US, quarterly results from Apple, Amazon, Eli Lilly

Friday 2 May

• Quarterly results or trading updates from Pearson, NatWest, Shell and Standard Chartered
• EU purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for manufacturing
• US non-farm payrolls, unemployment rate and wage growth