Top Movers

Weekly review

By Duncan Ferris

Date: Friday 22 Nov 2019

(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 ended the week 23.87 points higher at 7,326.81.
Equity view

Shares in Qiagen jumped on Monday after the genetic testing company said it was contemplating options that included a possible sale.

Diploma reported double-digit growth in annual profit and revenue after a good performance from its life sciences division and a number of new acquisitions.

Saudi Arabia called off plans to formally market shares of its state oil company outside the kingdom and other Gulf countries in its initial public offering, reported The Financial Times.

Huawei chairman Liang Hua said that Washington's decision to blacklist the telecommunications equipment maker had had little impact on the firm overall.

Technology group Sage said it had agreed to sell its Sage Pay business to US Bancorp's payments unit Elavon for £232m.

Consolidation among the world's main stockmarket operators heated up further at the start of the week as Swiss-based SIX Group launched a "friendly" bid for Spain's BME, even as the Madrid-based firm confirmed that it was in talks with pan-European exchange group Euronext about a possible tie-up.

Cobham shares rallied on Tuesday as the British government looked set to approve the London-listed defence company's proposed acquisition by US private equity group Advent International.

Tata Steel are set to cut 3,000 jobs across Europe and unions are seeking urgent talks with the Port Talbot owners.

Rio Tinto strongly refuted claims that any agreements relating to its $5. 3bn Oyu Tolgoi underground copper mine in Mongolia are illegal.

Luxembourg-based real estate company Aroundtown has agreed to buy TLG Immobilien for €3.1bn in an all-share deal.

Safety, health and environmental technology group Halma reported record first-half results thanks to revenue growth in all of its major regions and business sectors.

Polypipe Group updated the market on its trading for the 10 months ended 31 October on Tuesday, reporting "resilient performance" in tough markets, with group revenue 4.3% higher at £381.7m.

Pre-tax profits at satellite operator Inmarsat slumped in the third quarter as revenue was hit by a pause in payments from US communications company Ligado Networks.

FTSE 250 defence company Babcock reported a jump in first-half pre-tax profit on Wednesday as a solid performance from its marine business offset a weaker showing in the aviation segment.

KPMG is reportedly cutting 50% of the staff in its in-house project management team as part of a campaign to slash millions of pounds in costs.

DIY group Kingfisher reported a "disappointing" 3.2% fall in third quarter sales in softer markets as the company's chief executive said it was suffering from "organisational complexity" that ignored customers.

Offshore exploration firm Energean Oil & Gas has inked a gas sales and purchase agreement for the sale of approximately 0.5bn cubic metres of natural gas per year.

PayPal announced late on Wednesday a deal to acquire Honey Science Corporation for $4.0bn.

Royal Mail shares tanked on Thursday after the company said its transformation programme was behind schedule, cut its interim dividend and warned of a "challenging" outlook for the letters business in the UK.

Flow control and instrumentation company Rotork warned of "modestly lower" sales on an organic constant currency basis in 2019 after a "slightly greater than usual proportion" of recent orders were not scheduled for delivery until next year.

Playtech warned on profits on Friday as it highlighted "challenging" conditions in its financial trading division, TradeTech.

Hochschild Mining said it was "firmly" on track to meet 2019 output guidance, but cut 2020 production forecasts for its Pallancata operation due to permit issues.

Nationwide posted a 33% slump in interim profit as it took a hit from payment protection insurance claims.

Coats Group was sharply lower after the industrial thread maker said that sales in the four months to the end of October slowed.

Economic news

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday said he would scrap a planned cut in corporation tax and spend the revenue on the National Health Service.

Asking prices for homes in the UK dipped in November, despite a sharp drop in the number of new sellers on the back of lacklustre prices and political uncertainty, the results of a closely-followed survey revealed.

Output in the UK manufacturing sector improved more than expected in November but remained weak, according to the latest survey from the Confederation of British Industry.

Public sector net borrowing hit its highest level in five years in October, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday.

Business activity in the UK fell to its lowest level in November since after the referendum in July 2016 as Brexit uncertainty and the upcoming general election took their toll, according to data released on Friday.



International events

US President Donald Trump defended his potential election rival Joe Biden after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called him a "rabid dog" who should be "beaten to death" with a stick.

US President Donald Trump's recent announcement that he had not agreed to any roll-back in already imposed trade tariffs on China had made authorities in Beijing turn more pessimistic on the chances that a phase-one deal between the two economic giants could be reached.

US housing starts grew a bit more slowly than anticipated last month, but the 'miss' versus consensus forecasts was tempered by the fact that a lead indicator for activity rose more strongly than had been expected.

Climate change could shave three percentage points off global economic growth over the next three decades, revealed a study from the Economist Intelligence Unit that was published late on Tuesday.

Global economic growth has fallen to its slowest rate since the global financial crisis, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Sales of US existing homes rose more than expected in October, according to data released by the National Association of Realtors on Thursday.

The German economy avoided a recession in the third quarter, data released by Destatis confirmed on Friday.

The eurozone economy remained close to stagnation in November, according to preliminary figures released on Friday.

At a time when "uncertainty abounds" and the conventional wisdom in diplomacy and economics was being "challenged", Europe "must consider its place in the world and reset its ambitions", argued the European Central Bank's new President.

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