Great Portland collects 69pc of June rent, Petropavlovsk investor calls for removal of Hambro

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 44 points lower on Friday, having closed down 1.73% at 6,049.62 on Thursday.

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A Petropavlovsk investor has called for a shareholder meeting to remove Peter Hambro and four other directors who were installed in a boardroom coup. The Russian gold miner said it would hold a meeting at the request of Everest Alliance, which holds about 5% of the company's shares. Everest wants Hambro, Alya Samokhvalova, Johnny Martin Smith, Martin Smith and Angelica Phillips to leave the board after they were elected on 30 June. Everest has proposed two new directors and wants four current directors to be kept on before the meeting.

London commercial landlord Great Portland Estates said it had collected 69% of June rent to date including amounts covered by rent deposits as tenants felt the pressure of the coronavirus lockdown. This figure slumped to 58% when deposits were excluded with 74% collected from office tenants. Only 28% came in from retail, hospitality and leisure sectors clients, hit hardest by the shuttering. Chief executive Toby Courtauld said: “Whilst the lockdown has started to ease and our office pre-letting momentum remains healthy, COVID-19 is disrupting the activities of many of our existing occupiers, which in some instances is impacting their ability to meet their rental payments.”

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Pub and restaurant chains traded at half their pre-pandemic levels after reopening across England last weekend, as consumers proved to be wary of visiting their local or eating out. Among those pubs that did open, sales on 4 July and 5 July were 45% below pre-Covid levels, the analysis found. According to the Coffer Peach Business Tracker, which collates sales figures from 32 pub chains, about four out of 10 chain pubs began serving drinks again last weekend after being closed for nearly four months. - Guardian

The cost of household staples, ranging from meat and cheese to school uniforms and drinking glasses, will substantially increase if there is no Brexit trade deal, British retailers have warned. With just six months to go before the UK leaves the EU entirely by exiting the single market and the European customs union, retailers fear further damage to a sector already reeling from the coronavirus crisis, with 5,600 job losses announced on Thursday from Boots and John Lewis alone. – Guardian

China’s financial watchdog is increasingly worried about speculative leverage on the soaring Shanghai and Shenzhen equity markets, fearing a repeat of the boom-bust debacle in 2015 when the crash almost spun out of control. The China Securities Regulatory Commission has blacklisted 258 brokerage houses accused of offering illegal margin accounts at 10 times leverage. It told investors to “raise their risk awareness” before the buying frenzy reaches dangerous levels. – Telegraph

The government must provide better advice about public transport and on returning to the office to end “mixed messages” about what is safe, business leaders have said. Shobi Khan, chief executive of Canary Wharf Group, the London offices landlord, said it was an “oxymoron” that people could fly to different countries but could not go into work. “There is no problem going to Spain, Italy or France, but heaven forbid you go to the office,” Mr Khan said. – The Times

The chief executive of the French company building Britain’s new nuclear reactors won boardroom approval for the project after suppressing an internal review labelling it as risk- laden, according to France’s public accounts court. The disclosure is likely to fuel disquiet on both sides of the Channel over the construction of two new generation reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset at an estimated cost of up to £22.5 billion. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks turned in a mixed performance on Thursday, with the Dow Jones crossing below the 26,000 barrier following this week's jobless claims data.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.39% at 25,706.09 and the S&P 500 was 0.56% weaker at 3,152.05, while the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.53% stronger at 10,547.75.

The Dow closed 361.19 points lower on Thursday, erasing Wednesday's gains that came amid a fresh record for new coronavirus cases in the US of 62,000.

Thursday's main focus was this week's jobless claims data from the Department of Labor, which fell more than expected.

Data from the Department of Labor showed that initial unemployment claims for the week ending 4 July declined by 99,000 to 1.31m - beating consensus estimates for a reading of 1.39m. The four-week moving average, which is considered more reliable as it smooths out sharp fluctuations in the more volatile weekly figures, fell by 63,000 to 1.43m.

Continuing claims dropped by 698,000 to 18.06m for the week ended 27 June - equivalent to 12.4% of the US workforce.