BT looking for new FD, Randgold profit slips

London’s FTSE 100 is seen starting 30 points higher than Fridays close at 5,878.

Stocks to watch

BT Group has confirmed reports that it is looking for a new group finance director.

Sky News reported on Saturday that Tony Chanmugam is set to leave the job later this year, after holding the roles since 2008.

The FTSE 100 company confirmed on Monday that Chanmugam “may step down later this year” and that a search process is underway.

It said no formal decision has been made about a replacement or around the potential timing of any change.

Randgold Resources was in a surprisingly robust position in its end-of-year-results on Monday, despite lower gold prices pushing the company's profit down in the 12 months to 31 December 2015.

Production and costs were in line with the company's annual guidance, with the FTSE 100 company setting a new production record of more than 1.2m ounces - up 6% on the previous year.

Group total cash cost per ounce was down 3% to $679 (£467.60) per ounce.

The firm reported strong cash flows from operations, boosting cash on hand by 158% to $213.4m, though profits for the year were down due to lower gold prices - to $212.8m from $271.2m a year earlier.

Nevertheless, Randgold's board proposed a 10% increase in the annual dividend, which the board said reflected the strong cash flows generated by the business.

"It's easy to achieve when the stars are all aligned but it's a lot more difficult in a market as challenged as this one, which makes these results even more pleasing", said chief executive Mark Bristow.

In the press

Google is developing a new virtual-reality headset for smartphones, and adding extra support for the technology to its Android operating system, as it challenges Facebook's Oculus for an early lead in Silicon Valley’s latest platform war. The new headset will be a successor to Cardboard. the cheap-and-cheerful mobile VR viewer that Google launched in 2014, and feature better sensors, lenses and a more solid plastic casing, said people familiar with its plans. The smartphone-based device will be similar to the Gear VR, a collaboration between Samsung and Oculus that went on sale to consumers late last year. – Financial Times

US multinationals such as Google, Facebook and Amazon will be forced to publicly disclose their earnings and tax bills in Europe, under legislation being drafted by the EU executive. The European commission is to table legislation in early April aimed at making the world’s largest multinational corporations open their tax arrangements with EU governments to full public scrutiny. – Guardian

Rolls-Royce is poised to cut its dividend payment to shareholders for the first time in almost 25 years, underlining the crisis at the famous engineering group. The dividend cut will be a blow to Britain’s leading pension funds, who are amongst the biggest shareholders in the FTSE 100 company. – Guardian

The oil price rout, collapsing valuations and a growing mountain of debt left 80 per cent of Britain’s oil companies floundering in the red by the end of last year, according to research carried out for The Times. The number of loss-making UK oil and gas companies on the Alternative Investment Market in the final quarter of last year rose to 64, up 10 per cent on the same period a year earlier, according to an analysis that highlights the impact of the low oil price. – The Times

US close

US stocks declined on Friday as the non-farm payrolls report revealed employers added fewer jobs than expected in January.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 1.29% or 212 points to 16,205, the Nasdaq fell 3.25% to 4,363 and the S&P 500 fell by a hefty 1.85% or 35 points to finish at 1,880.

US employers added 151,000 jobs last month, compared with consensus expectations for a 190,000 gain and a downwardly-revised 262,000 for the previous month, figures from the Labor Department showed.