Sage agrees sale of Sage Pay business, Diploma sees profit grow by 15pc
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open eight points higher on Monday, having closed up 0.14% at 7,302.94 on Friday.
Stocks to watch
Technology group Sage said it had agreed to sell its Sage Pay business to US Bancorp's payments unit Elavon for £232m. Sage on Monday said it expected to report a statutory profit of around £180m on completion, which would close in the second quarter of the 2020 fiscal year.
TI Fluid Systems announced on Monday that Ronald Hundzinski would be its new chief financial officer and an executive director, both effective 6 January. The FTSE 250 company said he was joining from Tenneco, where he was currently executive vice-president of finance. During the prior 35 years, he had held a number of leadership positions in finance at Emerson Electric, GKN, Meridian Automotive and BorgWarner, and served as chief financial officer and executive vice-president of BorgWarner from 2012 until 2018.
Diploma reported 15% growth in annual profit before tax to £83.5m after revenue climbed by 12% to £544.7m on the back of a good performance from the FTSE 250-listed company's healthcare businesses. The technical products and services specialist said that, though the political and economic outlook remains uncertain, it remained on track for another strong performance in the year ahead due to its resilient business model.
Newspaper round-up
The Labour party has pledged to overhaul the public appointments system after one of the government-appointed commissioners who sets the UK minimum wage joined the board of G4S, the security company facing allegations of systematic violations of migrant workers’ human rights. Clare Chapman has served since March 2015 as one of nine commissioners on the government’s Low Pay Commission tasked with setting the national living wage, the legal minimum hourly rate. She was appointed as a G4S director in September. - Guardian
Boris Johnson will announce a range of tax cuts for businesses at the Confederation of British Industry conference, as the business group’s director general warned his plans to reduce immigration risked a skills shortage. The prime minister will promise tax relief for the construction and research industries, plus a tax cut for small employers by raising the allowance for their national insurance bills from £3,000 to £4,000. - Guardian
Saudi Arabia has placed a price tag of up to $1.7tn on its oil producer Aramco, significantly lower than its original target, after lacklustre demand from overseas investors. The kingdom plans to raise between $24bn and $25.6bn by selling a 1.5% stake in the energy giant on the local stock exchange. The proceeds are about a quarter of the $100bn Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, commonly known as MBS, had once hoped to reap from the listing. - The Times
The Civil Aviation Authority is expected to decide at a board meeting on Wednesday whether to approve Heathrow's plan to spend about $3.3bn on planning and early construction for a third runway. There are fears costs could be passed on to airlines and passengers through higher service charges before the project receives planning permission. - The Times
Former Stobart Group boss Andrew Tinkler is pressing forward with a rescue plan for the struggling haulier Eddie Stobart, which faces a cash crunch and a fight to save 6,500 jobs. Mr Tinkler, who ran the logistics fleet as part of Stobart Group until 2014, is preparing a $75m deal for the trucking company. - Telegraph
US close
Wall Street closed at fresh record highs on Friday following upbeat remarks from two top US administration officials regarding the chances of a preliminary trade deal with China.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.80% at 28,004.89, while the S&P 500 was 0.77% firmer at 3,120.46 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.73% stronger at 8,540.83.
The Dow closed 222.93 points higher on Friday following comments from Larry Kudlow after an event at the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday evening, where the national economic council director reportedly said Washington and Beijing were near a trade deal.
However, Kudlow also said that Donald Trump had not yet taken a decision on whether to delay the imposition of new trade tariffs on imports of cars and parts from the European Union.
Those comments were followed by remarks from US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross who told Fox Business Network that there was a very high probability that Washington and Beijing would strike a phase one trade agreement.