Weekly Review

The FTSE 100 closed the week down 195.27 points at 6,579.81.

Equity view

Ladbrokes announced on Friday that it has agreed a £23bn merger with Gala Coral, as it outlined a new three-year plan which will dent its 2015 operating profit.

Shares in Aggreko tumbled 15% after the temporary power provider said its interim and full-year results are likely to miss market expectations as a result of ongoing security challenges in Yemen and a further slowdown in its North American oil and gas related business.

Shares in Anglo American rose on Friday as investors breathed a sigh of relief that the miner had maintained its dividend, as it posted a 36% drop in first-half underlying earnings before interest and tax amid declining commodity prices.

Insurance company Beazley posted a 163% jump in first half net profit, driving its share price up.

Vodafone was in the black on Friday after saying it has made a good start to the year, with organic service revenue up 08% in the quarter ended 30 June, as the European businesses return to growth and customer demand for 4G and data takes off.

Shares in Lonmin slumped on Friday as the platinum producer said third quarter operations were held back by an increase of safety stoppages as the number of injuries rose.

Publisher Pearson posted a 04% decline in first-half operating profit amid a slowdown in the US textbook market, as it confirmed its guidance for the full year.

Japan’s Nikkei has bought the Financial Times and associated business titles from Pearson for £844m.

Shares in SSE fell sharply after the company reported a fall in its customer numbers and said it expects lower profits from its energy supply business

Second-quarter revenues and earnings from Shire fell short of expectations, but the drug group upped its earnings growth guidance for the full year.

Unilever's second half results were ahead of market forecasts, as the consumer goods giant's pipeline of new products increasingly drives growth and margin expansion despite challenging markets.

Sales growth went into reverse in the first quarter at SABMiller as currencies weighed and declines in Europe, Asia Pacfic and North America held back drinks volume growth in Latin America and Africa.

After major customer Apple disappointed with earnings overnight, ARM Holdings is likely to open lower as its own earnings rose by 34% to 728p per share but fell short of expectations.

HSBC is set to agree to sell its Turkish business to ING Group for around $700m-$750m in the next few days, according to reports.

After a record production year in 2015, mining giant BHP Billiton has trimmed its production guidance for 2016 in the face of waning prices and warned its underlying profits will be hit by a charge of between $350m to $650m from impairments and redundancies at its copper business.

Mining giant Fresnillo reported a significant increase in gold and silver output in the first half of 2015.

Easyjet shares were up 462% after the company said second half sales would spur a gain in full year earnings.

Vedanta Resources subsidiary Cairn India posted first quarter results showing growth in quarterly earnings led by improved cost performance and steadying oil prices and said its proposed buyout by Vedanta was "on track".

Royal Mail delivered a cautious first half trading statement broadly in line with expectations, with group revenues flat but management forced to step up their efforts to combat a challenging market that saw UK revenues down 2%.

The long running criminal investigation into Barclays dealings with Qatari investors could end if the parties can come to a deferred prosecution agreement, the Financial Times reported.

British Land said it has had a good start to the year, with strong occupational demand and lettings well ahead of estimated market rental value.

Shares in Aveva were up by more than a quarter after engineering design firm Schneider Electric said it would acquire the firm in a reverse takeover deal, beating out rumoured rivals Emerson and General Electric.

Barclays is reportedly planning to cut more than 30,000 jobs in the next two years, just days after the bank ousted chief executive Antony Jenkins.

Economic news

The UK housing market is “beginning to hot up again” as the number of mortgage approvals reaching a 15-month high in June, according to the British Bankers’ Association on Friday.

The pace of economic growth in the Eurozone slowed slightly in July, data released on Friday showed.

The Monetary Policy Committee’s “clear cut” 8 July decision not to raise Bank Rate was adopted just when the uncertainty around events in Greece was at its height, but since then confidence in the euro area had improved, Ian Mc Cafferty told Market News International in an exclusive interview.

UK households brought forward their expectations regarding the next rate hike by the Bank of England in July, partly as a result of a speech by governor Mark Carney, which raised the possibility of a rate rise around the turn of the year, according to data released by Markit.

Minutes released from the Bank of England's latest interest rate setting meeting showed a unanimous vote in favour of the decision to keep rates steady.

UK retail sales fell 0.2% in June compared to month before, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed, some way off the 04% gain that had been expected.

Automobile manufacturing in the UK climbed to a seven-year high in the first half of the year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

The British Retail Commission said foot traffic in British High Streets fell 28%, losing out to online retail.

Officials at the Treasury are reportedly examining plans to potentially water down the ring-fencing scheme due to be enforced in the banking sector.

Real estate portal Rightmove said property coming onto the UK market reached a new high last month, in its House Price Index report for July.

International events

External shocks are partly to blame for Japan’s slow economic growth but so are the country’s incomplete fiscal and structural reforms, which could result in stagnation and doubts about fiscal sustainability, the International Monetary Fund said in its annual assessment of the world’s third largest economy.

Lawmakers in Germany have backed a motion to start negotiations with Greece for a third bail-out package by a majority of 439 to 119.

Barack Obama urged Britain to remain in the European Union to maintain its influence on the world stage.

A widely followed leading indicator for the Chinese economy surprised sharply to the downside, suggesting risks for the economy still existed.

The Greek parliament approved a second set of reforms asked for by creditors in a bid to pave the way for negotiations on a third bail-out package, but some analysts warned the Greek crisis had already caused irreparable damage to the euro area’s architecture.

Even in a country that accounted for 20% of the global population and 13% of its gross domestic product, private consumers in the People’s Republic of China could not be expected to consume half the world’s copper as the government-led investment drive cooled, Goldman Sachs told clients in a research note.

Shares in Apple tumbled over 5% in early trading in New York on Wednesday, after the iPhone maker’s revenue outlook for the quarter fell short of expectations.

Athens denied speculation it was set to announce snap elections.

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has criticised rebel MPs of his Syriza party ahead of a crucial vote on austerity reforms.

Microsoft is expected to open almost 4% lower on Wednesday, after the tech giant said late on Tuesday that it suffered from restructuring charges and soft demand for its legacy software products.

Japanese inflation is expected to accelerate "considerably" in the coming months, the Bank of Japan's governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday.