BG Group second quarter income slumps

London open

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open 2 points higher than Thursday's close of 6668.87.

Stocks to watch

BG Group posted a 65% slump in second-quarter net income on the back of declining oil prices. The company, which has agreed to be bought by Royal Dutch Shell, posted net income of $429m, down from £1.21bn, on revenue of $3.98bn, down 28% from $5.50bn.

Lloyds Banking Group posted a 15% increase in underlying first-half profits to £4.4bn and a 38% increase in statutory profits to £1.2bn. The bank set aside an extra £1.4bn provision for PPI mis-selling and declared an interim dividend of 0.75p per share.

Antofagasta has agreed to a $1.01bn deal to acquire a 50% interest in the Zaldivar copper mine from Barrick Gold. The immediately earnings-enhancing deal will be funded from the company balance sheet and consists of $980m upon closing and five annual payments of $5m per year, starting in 2016.

In the press

The government is set to launch its first sale of Royal Bank of Scotland shares since the lender’s £46bn taxpayer-funded rescue nearly seven years ago, marking the beginning of the bank’s return to private ownership. Bankers have been sounding out investors for the past week about a sale of RBS stock that could begin in the next few days, the Times reported.

Some of the world’s largest companies have sounded the alarm over the slowdown in the Chinese economy, warning that weaker growth would hit profits in the second half of the year. The Financial Times said car companies such as PSA Peugeot Citroën, Audi and Ford have slashed growth forecasts while industrial goods groups such as Caterpillar and Siemens have all spoken out on the negative impact of China.

The prospect of a new €86bn (£60.2bn) bail-out package for Greece was thrown into fresh turmoil on Thursday, after the International Monetary Fund cast severe doubts on the Greek government’s ability to carry out radical reforms, the Daily Telegraph reported. In a leaked four-page staff assessment, the IMF’s executive board was told the world’s “lender of last resort” could no longer continue pumping more money into the debtor country.

US close

US stocks recovered from earlier losses and closed mixed on Thursday following the release of a report which showed the economy grew in the second quarter, while weekly jobless claims remained near their lowest level in decades.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.03% to 17,746, while the S&P 500 gained 0.02% and the Nasdaq rose 0.34%.

Economic activity in the US climbed in the second quarter of the year to a reach an annualised pace of 2.3%, falling short of analysts' expectations for a 2.5% reading.