Royal Mail seeks injunction over strike, Morgan Advanced Materials on track for full year

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 18 points lower on Friday, having closed up 0.13% at 7,406.41 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

Royal Mail said it was seeking an injunction on Friday at the High Court to stop industrial action by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) claiming “irregularities” in the ballot of staff. The company said the “integrity and legal soundness of any electoral process is vital”, especially in relation to potential industrial action around the General Election on December 12. Royal Mail claimed it had evidence that CWU members were asked to intercept and remove their ballot papers from mail coming into their delivery offices, before they were delivered to their homes, contravening company procedures.

Morgan Advanced Materials said it remained on course to meet full year expectations as operating margins improved and sales for the first nine months of the year edged up by 0.2% compared to the same period in 2018. The materials supplier added that declines in the industrial and automotive markets were offset by growth in the semiconductor and electronics, healthcare and chemical and petrochemical segments.

Spirent Communications reported continued business growth in its third quarter trading update on Friday, with its board saying it remained “confident” that the group would show progress in 2019. The FTSE 250 company’s expectations for the full year were left unchanged. Its board said that, as it entered a “period of upcycles” driven by 5G and the move to higher-speed ethernet testing, it managed to deliver a “solid performance” in the three months ended 30 September, pointing out that in particular, the firm continued to see healthy order intake growth, in line with that seen in the first half.

Newspaper round-up

Mothercare is launching a closing down sale with nearly all products “dramatically reduced” as it prepares to close all its 79 stores and its website in the UK. The baby and maternity retailer is to begin clearing stock with the sale on Friday after appointing administrators from the advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers on Tuesday, who are to close down its UK retail arm with the loss of more than 2,800 jobs within the next few months. Jobs at Mothercare’s warehouse and call centres – which are outsourced to other companies – are also at risk. – Guardian

The UK’s biggest fund manager has spent nearly £300m this year increasing its shareholdings in companies it named and shamed for dragging their heels on climate action. Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), which has been one of the most outspoken fund managers over the climate crisis, announced in June it was cutting five more companies from its environmentally and socially conscious funds for not doing enough to mitigate the climate emergency. – Guardian

Sajid Javid unveiled a £300bn investment spree as he tore up borrowing rules and reversed decades of Conservative policy with a pledge to revamp Britain’s roads, railways, schools and hospitals. The Chancellor said he will not use debt to fund current spending, such as benefits and wages, but will take advantage of rock-bottom interest rates by borrowing up to 3pc of economic output per year to invest. – Telegraph

The boss of Standard Chartered has bowed to investor pressure and agreed to cut his pension in response to a shareholder revolt over his retirement benefits. It is understood that the FTSE 100-listed bank will announce that Bill Winters, chief executive, will have his pension allowance reduced so that his retirement benefit as a percentage of his salary is in line with the rest of the company’s British workforce. – The Times

Private investors have been dumping share-based funds at their fastest rate in at least a decade, according to the latest snapshot of sentiment among savers. Net retail outflows from equity-based funds grew to £4.6 billion in the three months to September, the Investment Association said, in the largest net outflow since records began in 2009. – The Times

US close

US stocks finished higher on Thursday, as Beijing and Washington agreed to roll back tariffs on each other's goods as part of an effort to secure a phase-one trade deal.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.66% at 27,764.80, the S&P 500 added 0.27% to 3,085.18, and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 0.28% at 8,4434.52.

At the open earlier, the Dow had gained 211.76 points after closing flat during the previous session, following reports that an initial trade deal between Washington and Beijing could be delayed until December.

However, risk sentiment got a boost on Thursday after a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce said that top negotiators from both sides had held serious, constructive discussions and agreed to remove additional tariffs in phases as progress was made on the agreement.

"If China, US reach a phase-one deal, both sides should roll back existing additional tariffs in the same proportion simultaneously based on the content of the agreement, which is an important condition for reaching the agreement," said spokesman Gao Feng.