Weekly review
By Josh White
Date: Friday 24 Feb 2017
(ShareCast News) - The FTSE 100 finished the week down 56.26 points, or 0.77%, at 7,243.70.
Equity view
Standard Life proposed a full year dividend per share of 19. 82p, up 8%, as revenue for 2016 grew against a backdrop of volatile investment markets as the insurer aims to increase its exposure to the Indian market.
British Airways and Iberia owner International Consolidated Airlines Group announced a new share buyback as it reported an improved profits in the fourth quarter of last year and guidance for continued improvement in 2017.
Property website Rightmove reported 2016 pre-tax profits of £161m, up from £137m as site visits increased by 10% although leads for brokers fell 6% as the housing market cooled in the wake of the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
Property investor Workspace Group is to buy the freehold of an office building in London's West End for £98. 5m and turn it into a multi-let business centre.
New Zealand's competition watchdog refused a merger between Vodafone's New Zealand operations and the local Sky subscription television firm late on Thursday night, preventing the FTSE 100 firm from becoming the largest telecom and broadcaster in the South Pacific nation.
Paper and packaging manufacturer Mondi posted a 6% rise in pre tax profits to €843m (£715m) despite revenues falling by 2% to €6.6bn (£5. 5bn).
FTSE 100 defence group BAE Systems reported a rise in full-year profit before tax on Thursday, with revenue and order intake up as defence budgets recover.
Cigarette maker British American Tobacco lifted full year pre-tax profits to £6. 2bn from £5. 8bn as volumes and market share grew.
Oil services outfit Weir reported a 22% fall in full year pre-tax profits to £170m as it was hit by the collapse in prices but said it had returned to growth in the final quarter as prospects for the sector brightened.
Morgan Advanced Materials has agreed the sale of its UK Electro-Ceramics business, which comprises two sites at Ruabon and Southampton, to CeramTec UK Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of CeramTec GmbH.
Challenger bank Metro narrowed full year pre-tax losses to £16. 7m from £49. 1m as it reported a 56% rise in deposit growth to £7. 9bn.
Petrofac posted its full-year results for the 2016 calendar year on Wednesday, claiming a "good operational performance" across all businesses with an underlying net profit of $421m.
LondonMetric has acquired a regional distribution warehouse in Wakefield for £9. 5m and a last mile distribution warehouse in Dartford for £6. 3m, reflecting a blended net initial yield of 5. 8% and a reversionary yield of 6. 4%.
The Renewables Infrastructure Group announced its results for the year to 31 December on Tuesday, with a total shareholder return for the year of 15. 7% on a share price basis and 9. 3% on a net asset value basis.
InterContinental Hotels Group posted a jump in full-year operating profit on Tuesday as it said it will return $400m to shareholders via a special dividend and share consolidation.
Australian mining giant BHP Billiton more than doubled its interim dividend payout as it reported a massive jump in underlying profits which were underpinned by a recovery in commodity prices and demand from China.
AstraZeneca announced on Monday that it has entered into an agreement with TerSera Therapeutics for the commercial rights to the 'Zoladex' goserelin acetate implant in the US and Canada.
Capital & Regional has completed the sale of the Buttermarket Centre in Ipswich to the National Grid Pension Fund for £54. 7m, at an equivalent yield of 5. 9%, a deal it expects to make an internal rate of return of more than 40% on the total investment.
A 48% rise in revenues at Petra Diamonds helped to add a sparkle to first half earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation which jumped to $87. 1m from $48. 5m.
Goldman Sachs has upgraded aerospace and defence group Rolls-Royce to 'buy' from 'neutral', lifting the price target to 1,030p from 743p and adding the stock to its 'Conviction' list, saying the company has the potential to substantially increase free cash flow between now and 2020.
Economic news
Energy regulator Ofgem confirmed on Friday that it will cut National Grid's spending allowance for running the high voltage electricity grid and high pressure gas main by £185m.
The British Bankers' Association approved 44,657 mortgages last month, up from 43,581 in December and the highest number since January last year.
UK retail sales rebounded slightly in February after slipping at the beginning of the year, according to the CBI's Distributive Trades Survey.
Sterling firmed on key crosses Thursday, helped up by a slight improvement in UK retail-sales figures, a widely weaker dollar on perceived Federal Reserve jawboning and lingering Eurozone political uncertainty.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has reassured business affected by rates rises related to property valuations that there will be "appropriate relief" given to those worst hit, but would not promise any cash to aid those struggling.
Britain's former trade envoy to the EU has slammed the prospect of Brexit without a new trade deal in place as "insane," with markets having sweated for months about the UK's prospects in a post-separation world.
The UK will have to pick up a hefty bill at the conclusion of Brexit negotiations, according to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.
Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane warned that a spike in market expectations for a central bank interest-rate hike may harm the UK economy, against the already challenging Brexit backdrop, and sees inflation above 2% for three years.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Tory government has no intention of reversing its formal intention to quit the European Union, once it has been given, a report says.
UK manufacturer's order books climbed to a two-year high, according to the CBI's industrial trends survey for February.
International events
President Donald Trump has said that the US should expand its nuclear capability while there is no agreement to eradicate weapons on a global scale.
Investors continued to rotate towards so-called 'inflation trades', ahead of a likely break-out in bonds and the US dollar, according to the widely-followed weekly tally of fund flows by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch.
Malaysia has been accused by North Korea of behaving in a "sinister" way after opening an investigation into the assassination of leader Kim Jong-un's brother, Kim Jong-nam.
Germany's economy picked up in the last three months of 2016, driven by consumer spending, even as economists pointed to other indicators which hinted at weaker spending ahead.
Inflation in the eurozone rose 1. 8% in January compared to a 1. 1% jump the month before and close to the European Central Bank's target of just below 2%, data from Eurostat confirmed on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump is set to crack his immigration whip once again as his administration plans a major tightening of its deportation laws on illegal immigrants.
US tech giant Apple has accused the European Commission of making 'fundamental errors' in its ruling that the company should repay the Irish government €13bn in unpaid taxes.
The cost of living in France jumped in January amid strong gains for both food and energy prices but outside of those areas consumer price increases were subdued, economists said.
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen managed to narrow the gap between her and front-runner Emmanuel Macron a little, the results of a new poll revealed, sending the country's risk premium sharply higher - albeit on thin trading volumes - at one point during Monday's session.
The Kremlin has rubbished claims that Russia was involved in an attempt to oust the former president and prime minister of Montenegro during the country's elections last October.
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