Business news live: FTSE 100 results with Greggs facing ‘near-term hurdles’ and AstraZeneca profits surge – UK Times

Barclays have this morning announced a share buyback of £1bn and a half-year dividend of 3 pence per share, totalling £1.4bn in value returned to shareholders – a 21 per cent rise year on year.

That comes on the back of increased profits thanks to heightened market volatility during the Donald Trump tariff phase earlier this year.

Half-year pre tax profits totalled £5.2bn, beating expectations.

Shares are up more than a third this calendar year.

“We remain on track to achieve the objectives of our three-year plan, delivering structurally higher and more stable returns for our investors,” said CEO C. S. Venkatakrishnan in a statement.

Pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has reported profits increasing 13 per cent in this morning’s half-year financials.

Revenue rose to more than £28bn and the company has announced a 3 per cent rise of the interim dividend, to 76.7 pence per share.

“Our strong momentum in revenue growth continued through the first half of the year and the delivery from our broad and diverse pipeline has been excellent,” CEO Pascal Soriot said in a statement.

AstraZeneca recently pledged $50bn of investment into the US for a manufacturing facility in Virginia to push further growth.

On his trip to Scotland, Donald Trump has been extolling the virtues of drilling for oil and deriding wind power as an energy source.

James Alexander, CEO of UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF), said in response:

“Cheap wind and solar power have the potential to drive economic growth and jobs right across the country. Those who ignore the huge value of these rapidly expanding sectors are placing politics before economic opportunities.

“We can’t rely on our limited North Sea oil reserves to cut the cost of energy, as the international market dictates the prices. Instead, we need to rapidly roll out homegrown clean power alternatives, which will counter the threat of future fossil fuel crises.

“The government must ignore the naysayers and continue its efforts to attract crucial private investment into our renewable industries.”

Temu is not doing enough to assess the risks of illegal products being sold online and could be in breach of a new digital services law, the European Commission said.

The commission said on Monday that there was a “high risk” of consumers in the EU encountering illegal products on the e-commerce giant’s platform.

Specifically, analysis of a mystery shopping exercise conducted by the commission found that consumers shopping on Temu were very likely to find non-compliant products, including baby toys and small electronics.

The popular high-street bakery now sells a million sausage rolls every day – but such wild success has caused alarm among key investors, who believe Greggs may be fast reaching saturation point.

Can it learn the lessons of the Seattle coffee chain before it also overreaches itself, asks James Moore.

Good morning and welcome to our live business coverage – coming up today we’ll look at the firms reporting their latest profits and plans, how the FTSE 100 moves after a sharp downturn yesterday afternoon and plenty more besides.