Bwin.Party posts small rise in first half earnings

London open

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open three points lower than Thursday’s close of 6,192.03.

Stocks to watch
Online gambling group Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment posted a small rise in core first-half earnings despite being impacted by lower revenue and higher taxes. The company, which is currently in the middle of a bidding war between GVC Holdings and 888 Holdings, said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased 2% from the first half of last year to €47.3m.

WPP agency MediaCom has acquired a minority stake in Australian agency Rapid Media Services. The media communications agency has offices in Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed in WPP's update to the market.

In the press
The ousted chief executive of Tesco is to be interviewed by the Serious Fraud Office over the supermarket group’s £326m accounting scandal. Philip Clarke, who left Tesco last year after a series of profit warnings, is to be interviewed under caution, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the investigation. - The Times

The threat of rising interest rates has helped the number of first-time buyers to jump to its highest level since 2007, despite the increasingly hefty deposits needed. Completed property transactions by first-timers reached 29,700 in July, which was 5% higher than in June and the highest since August 2007 when the number stood at 35,300, according to the latest first-time buyer tracker report from Your Move and Reeds Rains, the estate agents. - The Times

UK consumer confidence climbed to its joint highest level in 15 years in August, as rising house prices, a brighter jobs market and low inflation underscored Britain's recovery. GfK's latest confidence barometer showed optimism about personal finances as well as the wider economy rose in August compared with July, pushing its index up three points to 7. This matched June's reading, which was also the highest since January 2000. - The Daily Telegraph

US close
US stocks rallied on Thursday, as Wall Street fed off a global recovery and strong GDP data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 369 points to 16,654.77, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were 47 and 115 points higher respectively.

"Today's strong revision to US GDP made the Fed's job even harder when they reconvene for September's meeting, which has all but been written off as a source of a rate hike given this week's volatility," said Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG.

In company news, shares in St Jude Medical jumped 4.44% after reports that Abbott Laboratories could buy the maker of medical devices.