BUSINESS LIVE: FCA probes data costs; Darktrace boosts guidance

Britain’s financial watchdog is set to investigate cost and access to investment benchmarks and indices, as well as credit ratings and other market data, amid concerns that failings in the markets are ‘increasing costs for investors, including, ultimately, pension savers’.

It follows a ‘call for input’, which saw the Financial Conduct Authority told that limited competition in the markets for benchmarks and indices, credit ratings and trading data may increase costs for investors and affect investment choices.

Games Workshop surpassed expectations in the six months to the end of November, with investors having expected the company to struggle to beat its 2020 efforts, as pre-tax profits came in 3 per cent head of guidance at £88.2million.

Analysts welcomes a strong outlook for Games Workshop, which indicated that headwinds are now abating with currency flattening off, capacity increasing, and freight and supply chain issues stabilising.

Newly-listed cybersecurity company Darktrace has raised its full-year outlook for revenue guidance and earnings margin, following strong customer growth and retention in the first half of the year.

The group which listed in April last year said it now expected its 2022 annual recurring revenue to rise by between 37 per cent and 38.5 per cent, up from previous guidance of 34 per cent to 36 per cent. It sees its earnings margin at between 3 per cent to 6 per cent, from previous guidance of 2 per cent to 5 per cent.

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