RPC in early talks with private equity groups, Primark performs strongly at AB Foods
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 19 points higher on Monday, having closed down 0.56% at 7,277.70 on Friday.
Stocks to watch
RPC Group confirmed that it was in "preliminary discussions" with private equity groups over a potential offer for the plastics manufacturer. The FTSE 250 group, which has come under pressure from investors over its growth plans, said talks were taking place with both Apollo Global Management and Bain Capital.
Associated British Foods reiterated its outlook for the year on Monday, as it said a strong performance from Primark, grocery, agriculture and its ingredients business should more than offset the impact of lower EU sugar prices. The company expects sales at Primark to have risen 5.5% at constant currency from the previous year, driven by increased selling space, offset by a 2% drop in like-for-like sales. At actual exchange rates, sales are expected to be 6% higher.
LondonMetric Property has sold its retail park in Launceston for £21.9m, reflecting a net initial yield of 5.6%. The retail park was purchased back in August 2010 for £13.5m and formed part of the original Metric portfolio. The company said on Monday that it has executed various asset management initiatives which have increased the number of units from five to nine and attracted new retailers such as M&S Food Hall, B&M, Iceland, Peacocks, Pets at Home and Costa.
GlaxoSmithKline has received a complete response letter from the US Food and Drug Administration over its recent application around mepolizumab, it said on Monday. The FTSE 100 drugmaker had applied for mepolizumab to be an add-on treatment to inhaled corticosteroid-based maintenance, for the reduction of exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, guided by blood eosinophil counts. The response letter stated that more clinical data was required to support an approval, with GSK saying it would work with the FDA to determine the appropriate next steps.
Newspaper round-up
British Airways is facing a £500m group action lawsuit over its handling of last week’s cyber attack that accessed 382,000 customers’ personal data. SPG Law is launching legal action over claims that BA was compensating customers for “direct financial losses” but not for the “inconvenience, distress and misuse of their private information”. - Guardian
The American investment giant that provides a vehicle for Warren Buffett to dispense his homespun financial wisdom is coming to Britain’s high streets. Berkshire Hathaway will say today that its property division has signed a franchise deal with Kay & Co, the London-based estate agent. - The Times
Former Just Eat employees have accused the company of failing to stamp out sexism and harassment in the workplace, after management were made aware of incidents. An investigation by the Daily Telegraph discovered that female workers were subject to sexist comments and harassment, with claims that management had dissuaded them from pursuing any action against their male colleagues.
US close
US stocks finished in the red following the release of a solid report on the state of the US jobs market in August but with investors warily eyeing the news headlines for the announcement of a fresh round of trade tariffs against the People's Republic of China.
By the end of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.31% or 79.33 points at 25,916.54, the S&P 500 off by 0.22% or 6.37 points to 2,871.68 and the Nasdaq Composite had fallen 0.25% or 20.18 points to 7,902.54.
Figures on non-farm payrolls growth for last month fell short of economists' forecasts if downwards revisions to data for June and July are taken into account, but wage growth picked-up to its fastest since November 2009.
Furthermore, as Mickey Levy at Berenberg Capital Markets pointed out, at 207,000 per month, Friday's report revealed that the monthly pace of job hiring had in fact accelerated from the 182,000 per month clip seen over 2017.
Reacting to the August figures on wages, short and longer-term Treasury note yields bolted higher.