Weekly review

The FTSE 100 ended the week 54.54 points higher at 7,778.79.

Equite view

Rio Tinto on Friday said it had been given permission to run driverless trains at its iron ore business in Western Australia.

Homeware retailer Dunelm has appointed Laura Carr - currently group financial controller of Compass Group - as its new chief financial officer.

John Laing Infrastructure (JLIF) said underlying portfolio growth in the three months to 31 March 2018 was 1.84% to £1.37bn.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals told shareholders its year had begun with an “encouraging start” on Friday, as they gathered for the annual general meeting, with the global Injectables business particularly said to be performing “well”.

Private equity outfit 3i on Thursday said full year net asset value rose 724p a share from 604p as the return on shareholders funds fell to 24% compared to 36% in 2017.

Full year pre-tax profits at information services group Experian fell 7% to $994m, the company said on Thursday.

British Land posted a drop in full-year underlying profit on Thursday even as its net asset value grew, as the FTSE 100 property group cautioned that market conditions are likely to remain challenging.

Countryside Properties posted a jump in half-year completions, revenue and profit on Thursday, as it expressed confidence in the medium term and bumped up its dividend.

Paper products maker Mondi said it expected first quarter underlying operating profit to be 15% higher year on year at €295m and 6% up on the fourth quarter of 2017.

Paddy Power Betfair confirmed it is in talks over a potential merger of its US business and US-based FanDuel to target the US sports betting market.

Software group Micro Focus International updated the market on its trading performance for the six months ended 30 April on Wednesday, saying it expected to report revenues better than the management guidance of -9% to -12% on a constant currency basis, compared to the proforma six months ended 30 April 2017.

The box office blockbuster movies "Black Panther" and "Avengers: Infinity War" helped boost revenue at Cineworld by 6.7% in the five months to May 13.

Renewable fuels company Velocys detected a leak at its Oklahoma City plant on Tuesday, believed to have originated inside one of the plant's two Fischer-Tropsch reactors.

Smart plastics producer Symphony Environmental Technologies has poured a whole lot more cash into its marketing budget ahead of an expected increase in orders this year.

Brazilian focused mining and development company Serabi Gold swung to a profit in its the first quarter of its trading year, upped its gold production estimates for the full year and is soon to be swimming in cash.

Podcasting platform Audioboom announced on Tuesday that its proposed acquisition of Triton Digital Canada will not be proceeding.

Entertainment One's major TV series 'Designated Survivor' has been dropped by US network ABC, which could affect the FTSE 250 company's revenue next year depending on the speed and size of a replacement deal.

Interim pre-tax profits at speciality chemicals company Victrex were boosted by the weak pound as they rose 26% to £63.3m, although tailwinds were expected to “significantly reduce” in the second half and a headwind was forecast for 2019.

Centrica said it lost 110,000 customers in the UK in the first four months of the year, although it said the “Beast from the East” snowstorm in February helped increase customer demand in a tough competitive environment.

Technical products and services provider Diploma issued its half-year results on Monday, reporting increases in revenue and adjusted operating profit of 8% and 9% to £234.9m and £40.6m, respectively.

Economic news

Downing Street has handpicked a group of City veterans to launch a probe into the Financial Reporting Council just days after a report on recently collapsed facilities management and construction services company Carillion highlighted several failures in the market.

Prime Minister Theresa May has proposed a new Brexit customs plan aimed to break the deadlock the UK government is facing over the future relationship with the EU post-2020 faced some problems on Thursday.

Outsourcing NHS services to private company Capita is resulting in “widespread failures”, the UK’s spending watchdog has said.

To speed planning permission for fracking projects in England, ministers have launched a fund to help local authorities deal with shale applications and a new 'planning brokerage service' to help both developers and local authorities with the application process.

UK energy users will be forced to pay an extra £1.5bn for their green energy over the next fifteen years due to a tweak of the government’s policy on green energy subsidies, the National Audit Office has warned.

UK government policy changes have contributed to a “dramatic and worrying” collapse in clean energy investment since 2015, a committee of MPs said on Wednesday.

Growth in British wages slowed in March, official data showed on Tuesday, but employment expanded at the best quarterly rate for more than two years and the squeeze on real incomes eased as pay growth matched inflation.

Downing Street's inner Brexit cabinet is set to meet again on Tuesday after Prime Minister Theresa May attacking Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, who said he was among a group that would not back down from supporting a hard Brexit, outside the customs union with the Irish border open.

Retail numbers in UK shops have fallen by an "unprecedented" 4.8% over the past two months, according to a key industry survey.

UK consumer spending remained depressed at the start of the second quarter, as April saw households rein in spending for the 11th out of the past 12 months and high street shops being particularly hard hit.

International news

US President Donald Trump contradicted his national security adviser John Bolton and said the 'Libya model' for denuclearisation is not the way forward with North Korea, but said it was a possibility if both countries don’t strike a deal in the near future.

China has denied offering to reduce its annual trade surplus with the US by $200bn through increased imports of American products, rebuffing earlier reports in American media.

Perhaps the most closely-followed lead indicator for factory sector activity in the States jumped past forecasts in May as new orders rocketed.

US jobless claims for last week increased by moderately more than markets were expecting.

Annual inflation in the eurozone slowed to 1.2% in April from 1.3% the month before, well below the European Central Bank's target of close to but under 2%, data from Eurostat confirmed on Wednesday.

North Korea said it will not engage in economic trade with the US in exchange for its denuclearization and threatened to cancel the upcoming summit between leader Kim Jong-Un and US president Donald Trump.

Sentiment among US housebuilders improved in May, according to data released on Tuesday.

The Federal Reserve bank of New York's Empire State gauge jumped in May, helped by a stronger-than-expected print on new orders.

The Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries nudged higher its forecast for growth in crude supplies from outside the cartel this year, predicting it would outpace the expected increase in demand.

A top Federal Reserve official welcomed the recent rise in inflation to the central bank's target level, but said it was too soon to say its inflation had been met, apparently placing her in the camp of those rate-setters who were expecting just two more interest rates hikes in 2018 and not three.