Investors in Edinburgh-based Abrdn headed for the exit after the group’s half-year results received a poor response, resulting in the asset manager suffering its worst day of trading in more than three years. The shares closed down 25.5p, or 11.7% to 193p.

Abrdn said first half revenue from last year’s acquisition of Interactive Investor (ii) offset a decline in its investments which were hit by deteriorating market conditions. Full story here

Miners and other companies exposed to Asia were hit by sluggish progress in China, dragging the FTSE 100 down 27 points (0.4%) to 7,527.42 while the more UK-focused FTSE 250 fell 0.1%.

Fresnillo slipped 3.4% to 544.25p and Anglo American 2% to 2156.5p, while Glencore, which reported steep drop in net profits for the first half of the year, fell 12.25p (2.7%) to 444.75p.

Burberry, the luxury goods group whose single biggest market is China, was down 28p (1.3%) to 2182p, while Prudential, the Asia-focused insurer, shed 16p, or (1.6%) at 1010.5p.

InterContinental Hotels

InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn chain and the George in Edinburgh (pictured), reported strong growth in revenue and profit as the rebound in post-pandemic travel continued. Shares ticked up 132p (2.3%) to 5790p.

Revenue in the half-year to 30 June totalled $2.23 billion, up 24% from $1.80bn in the previous year, with operating profit of $584 million, up 62% from $361m.

First-half revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose 24% year-on-year, with 17% growth in the second quarter, driven by particularly strong growth in Greater China, up 94%, reflecting the lifting of travel restrictions.

Elie Maalouf, chief executive, said: “Travel demand is very healthy, with RevPAR improving year-on-year across all our markets and exceeding 2019 pre-pandemic peaks for four consecutive quarters.

“In the Americas and EMEAA regions, leisure demand has remained buoyant and business and group travel continued to strengthen, while in Greater China, demand has rebounded rapidly.”

RevPAR in the Americas rose 11% in the first half while growth in EMEAA jumped 42%.

Average daily rate rose 7%, with occupancy up 9 percentage points and now 1.3 percentage points below 2019.

The dividend was hiked 10% to $48.3 cents from $43.9 cents.

Glencore

Mining giant Glencore reported a sharp drop in first-half profit after sluggish Chinese growth weighed on commodity prices.

The Swiss commodities group posted first-half core earnings of $9.4bn (£7.4bn), half the record number it posted last year on the back of soaring prices resulting from the Ukraine war.

However, many of those pressures have now eased, while the spluttering Chinese economy has hit demand, knocking profitability across the mining sector.

Despite the market conditions Glencore said it would raise its dividend by $1bn and buy back a further $1.2bn of its own stock in part because the company says it is holding back $2bn in cash while it bids to buy Teck Resources’s coal business.