Weekly review

The FTSE 100 ended the week up 187.42 points at 6,292.60.

Equity view

Rio Tinto has agreed to make public a review into its decision to destroy the Juukan Gorge Aboriginal heritage site after political and investor pressure over the botched operation.

Wood Group said it expected a 19% fall in first half core earnings as the coronavirus pandemic hammered the oil and gas sector.

JD Sports is appealing against the blocking of its £90m takeover of Footasylum, according to documents published by the Competition and Markets Authority on Thursday.

Synthomer has completed the pricing of €520m (£468.44m) in senior notes due 2025, it announced on Friday.

National Grid said the Covid-19 crisis would have a £400m impact on results in the current year but that it expected no long-term material impact as it reported a 1% increase in annual profit.

Stagecoach said it had liquidity of more than £800m as it agreed more waivers with its lenders to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic impact.

Safestore increased its dividend as the household storage company reported higher half-year earnings and predicted annual results in line with expectations.

Helios Towers was under the cosh on Thursday after Network i2i, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, sold 23.1m shares - its entire stake - in the telecom tower infrastructure company.

Berkeley deferred returning £455m of surplus capital to shareholders for up to two years as the housebuilder reported a 35% drop in annual profit and almost £1.9bn of forward sales.

Serco reinstated financial guidance as the government outsourcer said it expected an increase of about 50% in first half profit based on strong revenue growth.

BHP has hired David Lamont as its next chief financial officer from Australian biotechnology group CSL, replacing Peter Beaven who is stepping down after 17 years at the mining group.

Banknote printer De La Rue said it was raising £100m and axing jobs at its Gateshead plant in England after losing the contract to produce UK passports after Brexit.

Greggs said it had frozen almost all planned shop openings and asked landlords for rent cuts as the baker set out plans to reopen about 800 stores for takeaway service on Thursday.

4imprint said orders had risen to almost half last year's amount as US states began lifting Covid-19 restrictions that had hit the promotional merchandise company's sales hard.

The Serious Fraud Office has closed its investigation into De La Rue after almost a year in which the agency scrutinised the banknote printer's activities in South Sudan.

Multi-utility services provider Telecom Plus lifted its dividend and full year profits as it said the coronavirus crisis was having a limited impact on its business.

Cineworld has pulled out of its $2.1bn (£1.7bn)) acquisition of the Canadian movie theatre chain Cineplex, citing breaches of the companies' agreement and a "material adverse effect".

International distribution group Bunzl said it planned to repay employee-related government support packages and bring forward the settlement of tax deferrals after increased deliveries of food and medical products during the coronavirus pandemic drove higher first half revenues.

Capita, a major provider of pandemic response services to the UK government, plans to cut at least 200 jobs as it tries to stay within conditions set by lenders, according to a report.

Travis Perkins plans to cut 2,500 jobs and shut 165 branches to cut costs as the recession caused by Covid-19 hits the construction industry.

Economic news

UK consumer confidence recovered in June but the improvement could be little more than a "dead cat bounce", according to a survey out on Friday.

UK retail sales began to recover in May as lockdown measures started to ease and shops such as garden centres were allowed to open, according to figures released on Friday by the Office for National Statistics.

The UK's financial regulator said it was banning permanently the marketing of risky ‘mini bonds’ to retail investors in response to the collapse of London Capital & Finance that left more than 11,000 small investors with losses of £237m.

The Bank of England left interest rates unchanged and increased purchases of government bonds by £100bn as it said the economy appeared to be picking up more quickly than expected from the Covid-19 lockdown.

UK consumer price inflation declined to a four-year low in May amid falling fuel prices, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan took a 10% wage cut and warned he would have to make big cuts to police, fire and transport services unless the government fills a near-£500m financial hole caused by Covid-19.

The number of hours worked in the UK fell at a record pace as an extra 6m people stayed off work during the Covid-19 crisis, official figures showed.

A cheap and widely available steroid treatment has proven effective in reducing the mortality rate among the most severely ill Covid-19 patients.

MPs warned the Treasury that over 1.0m people were being left out of the Covid-10 income support schemes and urged the government to help cover everyone in need of the plan.

The English housing market has rebounded strongly after lockdown restrictions were eased, industry research showed on Monday.

International events

China plans to step up purchases of US farm goods to comply with the phase one trade deal between the two countries after talks in Hawaii, according to a report.

China released the genome sequencing data for the coronavirus strain responsible for a recent outbreak in Beijing and officials said they identified it as having a European origin.

Joblessness in the US continued retreating last week, but only just.

A key gauge of manufacturing sector conditions in the US mid-Atlantic region shot back in June, soundly beating economists' forecasts.

Sales of new cars in the EU more than halved in May despite the easing of lockdown measures and showrooms reopening in most markets, industry figures showed.

Eurozone inflation eased in May, according to final figures released by Eurostat on Wednesday.

Global demand for oil is set to fall at the fastest rate in history this year, a closely-watched industry report has predicted, before rebounding in 2021.

German investor sentiment rose in June, on hopes that the country’s economic slump will have troughed by the end of summer, a closely-followed survey showed on Tuesday.

The latest batch of Chinese economic indicators came in below economists' forecasts but some analysts said they would still lead to upwards forecast revisions.

The single currency bloc's trade surplus with the rest of the world vanished in April as export sales fell at nearly twice the pace of purchases from overseas.