Games Workshop said trading was in line with expectations in a brief trading update on Wednesday.

The table-top gaming company said the epxtected core revenue of not less than £210 million, up from £191.5 million last year. The company also said profit before tax is estimated to be not less than £83 million.

The company has enjoyed an explosion in revenue since the beginning of the pandemic as they roll out digital gaming and offer licensing deals.

The robust performance will see Games Workshop hike their dividend to 165p per share – a total of £54 million – up from 100p last year. The company is also paying employees £1,500 each in December.

Games Workshop will release their half year report 10th January.

Games Workshop shares were 1.5% weaker at 7,287 at the time of writing.

This year has been punctuated by expectations of interest rate trajectories and today was a reminder we are not yet at the end of the hiking cycle.

Strong US jobs numbers last week have highlighted the required economic weakness for a Fed ‘pivot’ is still some months away, and rates will increase before they start to fall.

Nonetheless, the FTSE 100’s losses were slight and the index remained above 7,500.

“We’re very much in looking glass territory again with investors desperate for the Fed to ease up on rate hikes and therefore taking any bit of good news about the economy as bad news because it will delay the longed-for pivot,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

“Better-than-expected figures from the US services sector, combined with some profit taking after a strong run, resulted in losses across the Atlantic overnight and the negativity permeated into Asian shares with some of the optimism about a loosening of Chinese restrictions also beginning to fade.

“The next key US releases come on Friday with producer prices data and a reading of consumer sentiment. Next Wednesday is decision day on US rates and the Fed’s actions could help set the tone for the tail end of 2022 and first weeks of 2023.”

Oil and gas shares

Although the FTSE 100 was trading negatively on Tuesday, roughly half of the constituents were trading higher. However, weakness in oil major Shell and BP dragged on the index as oil prices fell on concerns around Chinese demand.

Ashtead have been a major beneficiary of a push to improve infrastructure in their key North American markets.

Ashtead’s US and Canadian segments saw their revenue and EBITDA jump as increased activity in major infrastructure projects drove strong performance at Ashtead’s plant hire business.

The US market – Ashtead’s largest – saw EBITDA surge to $1,998.2m in the first half, up from $1,567.1m in the same period a year ago.

Canada’s EBITDA rose to $129.4m from $118.7m. The UK business was the only disappointment with revenue and EBITDA falling in both dollar and sterling terms.

Ashtead’s shares have posted astronomical gains since the lows of the pandemic and today’s Ashtead shares were little changed after a strong run into results. Ashtead was trading at 5,087p at the time of writing, up 0.5%.

“Ashtead’s been able to brush aside inflationary pressures and deliver a strong first half with top and bottom-line growth. Better still for investors, full year guidance got a bump higher too as Ashtead’s end markets look robust in the face of wider economic uncertainty,” said Matt Britzman, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Ashtead’s largest market, the US, is benefiting from a host of fiscal policies aimed at improving infrastructure and supply chain resilience – Ashtead’s scale and expertise should place it well to be a key supplier. Inflation on a host of cost lines remains a challenge, but Ashtead has the scope to pass most of the pain onto its customers with higher rental rates on its $15bn rental fleet.”