BAT stubs out crisis fears as buyback plan resumes

Lucky Strike maker British American Tobacco has resumed a share buyback programme worth £750million after full-year profits were boosted by price hikes and the weak pound.

The world’s second biggest cigarette firm restarted the scheme, which was suspended in 2008 in the wake of the financial crisis, after seeing free cash flow increase by 23 per cent to £3.2billion. But investors were disappointed by the scale of the buyback, sending the shares down 56.18p to 2356.82p.