Rio Tinto cuts gross debt by another $2.5bn, Workspace acquires another City property
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 16 points lower on Friday, having closed down 0.11% at 7,439.29 on Thursday.
Stocks to watch
Rio Tinto said it had completed its bond tender and redemption exercises and had cut gross debt by a further $2.5bn (£1.97bn). The mining giant said early redemption costs were expected to reduce underlying earnings by about $180m and cash flow from operating activities by $260m in the first half of 2017. These would be offset by future savings, it added.
Workspace Group announced on Friday that it acquired Salisbury House at 28-31 Finsbury Circus, London EC2, for a cash consideration of £158.7m. The FTSE 250 company said the building is held on a long leasehold from the City of London Corporation, has a gross asset value of £158.7m and generated net rental income of £8.1m over the last 12 months.
Newspaper round-up
Generations of British consumers have been locked into a “risky and expensive” project by the UK’s subsidy deal for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset, according to a damning report by the spending watchdog. The National Audit Office said the contract sealed by ministers last September with EDF to construct the country’s first new atomic reactors in two decades would provide “uncertain strategic and economic benefits”. – Guardian
Jill McDonald, the boss of Halfords, is missing out on £1.7m of bonuses from the bikes and car parts retailer as she jumps ship to Marks & Spencer. However, the executive, who will have spent only two and a half years at Halfords, is unlikely to feel shortchanged as M&S’s policy is to offer payments or buyout awards to new recruits to make up for bonuses missed at their former employer. – Guardian
Peter Hambro has lost his bid to stop a major Russian investor from filleting the board of Petropavlovsk, the gold mining company he co-founded more than 20 years ago. Shareholders at the London-listed miner’s AGM voted 70pc in favour of a resolution by Renova to oppose the reappointment of Mr Hambro. They also voted down the reappointment of the company's three independent non-executive directors. – Telegraph
Fears of a clampdown on China’s swashbuckling corporate empire builders are mounting after authorities in Beijing began gathering financial intelligence on big-spending conglomerates. Banking regulators ordered lenders to report on companies that have spearheaded Chinese international expansion with hundreds of billions of pounds of debt-fuelled acquisitions in recent years, including in the UK. – Telegraph
Falling oil prices mean two things for cash-strapped British households: cheaper petrol and lower energy bills. With less to shell out on filling up the tank or keeping the home warm, families feel wealthier and spend more in shops. Business likes it, too. As energy costs fall, they are more likely to invest. Common sense is borne out by analysis. A 10 per cent fall in oil knocks about 0.15 percentage points off the consumer prices index of inflation and adds 0.1 percentage points to growth, the Bank of England estimated in 2015. The following year, Ben Broadbent, the Bank’s deputy governor, declared the 75 per cent drop in oil prices since 2014 a “net good” for the economy. – The Times
US close
Wall Street's main indices finished slightly lower on Thursday, against a backdrop of solid readings on the jobs and housing markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.06% at 21,397.29, while the S&P 500 was off 0.05% at 2,434.50 and the Nasdaq 100 lost 0.04% to 5,779.87.
Oil prices were recovering from Wednesday's heavy losses, with West Texas Intermediate up 0.61% to $42.79 a barrel and Brent crude rising 1.04% to $45.29.
Prices slipped into bear market territory earlier in the week amid worries about growing supply from Nigeria, Libya and the US.
They briefly gained ground on Wednesday following a report that Iran's oil minister said Iran and other OPEC members were mulling further cuts, but later fell back.
In economic news, home prices in the US increased by 0.7% month-on-month in April - ahead of a consensus for 0.5% - according to the FHFA.