CMA blocks Sainsbury's merger with Asda, Acacia Mining sees gold production fall in first quarter

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 16 points higher on Thursday, having closed down 0.68% at 7,471.75 on Wednesday.

Stocks to watch

The Competition and Markets Authority has blocked Sainsbury's proposed merger with Asda. Chair of the inquiry group, Stuart McIntosh, said: "It’s our responsibility to protect the millions of people who shop at Sainsbury’s and Asda every week. Following our in-depth investigation, we have found this deal would lead to increased prices, reduced quality and choice of products, or a poorer shopping experience for all of their UK shoppers. "We have concluded that there is no effective way of addressing our concerns, other than to block the merger.

Acacia Mining said first quarter gold production fell 13% year on year to 104,899 ounces, but still expected to meet full year guidance of of 500,000 to 550,000 ounces. Revenue fell 12% to of $138m year on year, with the lower sales base further impacted by a lower average realised gold price. EBITDA slumped 72% to $24m mainly due to lower revenue and the impact of a $45m gain on the sale of a non-core royalty in the first quarter of 2018.

Wood Group has been awarded a new contract by Evonik to deliver engineering, procurement and construction management services for its new polyamide 12 production complex, it announced on Thursday, to be built at the Marl Chemical Park in Germany. The FTSE 100 company described polyamide 12 is a high-performance polymer for special applications across a number of end markets including the automotive industry, oil and gas pipelines and 3D printing. It said the new facility would supplement the existing polyamide 12 production plant, without disrupting existing production.

Newspaper round-up

Britain’s growth rate will bounce back above 1.5% next year as ministers exceed existing public spending budgets to cope with an ageing population, a leading think tank has said. The National Institute for Social & Economic Research (NIESR) said plans to ease austerity only slightly over the next five years were “unbelievable”. It added that government spending would almost certainly need to increase by more than expected in the next few years, increasing the UK’s GDP growth. – Guardian

Free TV licences for over-75s should be scrapped, the age threshold for free bus passes raised and the triple-lock on pensions abolished to close the widening gap between young and old in Britain, according to a Lords report. The House of Lords committee on intergenerational fairness and provision said it was time to rebalance government policy in favour of the young, to remove the risk of the social bonds between generations fraying further. – Guardian

Royal Bank of Scotland has announced that chief executive Ross McEwan has resigned after more than five-and-a-half years leading the bank. RBS said that Mr McEwan has has a 12-month notice period. He will remain in place until a successor had been appointed and an "orderly handover has taken place". His date of his departure will be confirmed in due course, the bank said. – Telegraph

The Government faces spiralling climate change costs unless it accelerates plans to fund a new breed of carbon capture projects by the mid-2020s, according to MPs. A select committee report warned that without carbon capture the cost of meeting the country's legally-binding climate targets will double to 2% of GDP by 2050. – Telegraph

BT is planning a retreat from Ireland with a £400m auction of its business serving corporate clients in the Republic, The Telegraph can reveal. The telecoms giant has invited bids for BT Ireland as part of a radical pruning of its Global Services international arm, sparked by a major accounting scandal in Italy. – Telegraph

US close

US stocks closed lower on Wednesday as the previous session's energy rally lost steam amid yet another deluge of corporate earnings.

At the close, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down 0.22% to 26,597.05 and 2,927.25, respectively, while the Nasdaq Composite had drifted 0.23% lower to 8,102.01.

The Dow closed 59 points lower on Wednesday as investors' focus was largely set on earnings season, following better-than-expected figures from some blue-chip stocks during the previous session which helped both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 reach all-time highs.

Markets were boosted on Tuesday by a rally in the energy sector as the international benchmark Brent crude jumped to its highest level in five and a half months.

Oil prices shot up on the back of an announcement from the White House that it would be putting an end to the waivers that had allowed Iran's biggest buyers to carry on importing limited amounts of the nation's oil.