LondonMetric sells two logistics warehouses, AstraZeneca gets EC approval for 'Forxiga'

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 25 points lower on Monday, having closed down 2.01% at 7,207.59 on Friday.

Stocks to watch

LondonMetric has sold two logistics warehouses in Sheffield and Wakefield to Exeter Property Group for £67m. The Wakefield property, which was previously occupied by Poundland, was sold for £43.5m, while the Sheffield property, which is let to M&S until 1 April, fetched £23.5m.

AstraZeneca has received the first regulatory approval for its Forxiga treatment to be used the treatment of patients with type-1 diabetes. The European Commission (EC) has approved Forxiga as an adjunct to insulin in patients with a body mass index of greater than or equal to 27, when insulin alone does not provide adequate glycaemic control despite optimal insulin therapy.

Wood Group has agreed the sale of its Terra Nova Technologies division - a conveying and material handling systems solutions business - to Murray & Roberts subsidiary Cementation Americas, it announced on Monday. The FTSE 100 company said cash proceeds would be $38m, representing a multiple of 5.2x 2018 EBITA of $7.3m. It said the sale remained subject to normal conditions, with closing expected in the second quarter.

Newspaper round-up

Theresa May has resisted pressure to set a date for her departure in return for support for her EU divorce deal after a threatened cabinet coup fizzled out. After meeting prominent Brexiteers at Chequers yesterday, the prime minister is instead expected to allow parliament to move towards a softer exit from the European Union. - The Times

Shares in Asia Pacific have slumped after a key market indicator flashed an “amber warning” that the United States could be heading for a recession. Bond yields also continued to fall across the world with Australian 10-year treasury yields falling to a record low on Monday of 1.756% in what analysts see as a strong indicator of a downturn hitting the resource-rich country. - Guardian

Confidence in the UK’s financial services industry is falling at its fastest rate since the height of the 2008 crisis. Political uncertainty continues to “chip away” at the sector, threatening the City’s international standing, new research has claimed. Headcount has also fallen across businesses, meaning that overall employment within the sector has hit its lowest level for four years in March, according to a survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and accountancy giant PwC. - Telegraph

US close

The main US stock market gauges finished at their session lows in a volatile day of trading on Wall Street, with traders' attention firmly on the flattening US yield curve as economists moved to factor-in a more dovish outlook for interest rates in the States in the wake of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting two days before.

Adding to the selling pressure were weak German manufacturing figures that appeared to spark worries about global growth, adding to traders' incentive to seek out the relative safety of the fixed income space, with equity strategists somewhat divided on how sustained Friday's losses would turn out to be.

Belying that caution, data from Bank of America-Merrill Lynch the day before revealed that investors had continued to rotate from from stocks to bonds, to the tune of $20.7bn of outflows from the former.

BofA-ML strategists however were undaunted, quite the opposite, telling clients that S&P 500 would rise past the 3,000 point mark in the front half of the year.

Against that backdrop, by the end of trading the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.77% to 25,502.32, alongside a drop of 1.90% on the S&P 500 to 2,800.71 while the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.5% to 7,642.67.