SSP trading disrupted by Omicron variant, Shaftesbury's recovery 'on-track'
London pre-open
The FTSE 100 was being called to open 52.4 points higher ahead of the bell on Friday after seeing out the previous session 0.71% lower at 7,528.84.
Stocks to watch
Travel food outlet operator SSP Group said the Omicron Covid variant and government restrictions saw trading in the eight weeks to January 30 slump to 57% of pre-pandemic levels.
The Upper Crust owner said recent weeks "have been more encouraging", as curbs were lifted in the UK and some Continental European markets, with sales now trending positively again, driven mainly by strengthening trading in the rail sector as commuter travel returns.
Real estate investment trust Shaftesbury said on Friday that its recovery was "on-track", despite a short period of disruption caused by Omicron restrictions, as visitors and office workers were returned to London's West End and both its near and longer-term outlook remained "positive".
The FTSE 250-listed firm highlighted that £10.6m in leasing transactions were completed in the quarter, while rent reviews added a further £1.3m in rental value and 60 commercial lettings and lease renewals added an additional £7.9m in rental value.
Shaftesbury added that rent collection continued to improve in the period, with the group collecting 88% of contracted rents due for the three months ended 31 December.
Newspaper round-up
Motorists will have to pay by the mile to make up a £35.0bn tax shortfall that will arise from the shift to electric vehicles, MPs have warned, calling on the government to act urgently to bring in a national road pricing scheme. The cross-party Commons transport select committee said it saw "no viable alternative" to road pricing and work should start immediately on creating a replacement for fuel duty before it dwindled away with the transition. - Guardian
KPMG is being sued for £1.3bn by government officials liquidating the collapsed contractor Carillion, in an unprecedented legal action against one of the big four auditors. Carillion collapsed in January 2018 with £7.0bn in debts, resulting in 3,000 job losses and chaos across government and private-sector construction projects ranging from hospitals, schools, roads and even work on Liverpool football club's stadium, Anfield. - Guardian
The son of one of Margaret Thatcher's closest political allies is cashing in on BP's plans to move away from fossil fuels. William Tebbit has sold a multimillion-pound stake in his business that converts vegetable oil into fuel for lorries to the FTSE 100 energy giant. His father, Lord Tebbit, presided over the phased privatisation of BP as trade and industry secretary under Mrs Thatcher. - Telegraph
Australia's richest man has launched the world's first criminal prosecution against Facebook, claiming that the social media platform breached anti-money laundering laws by allowing Russian scammers to advertise on its website. Andrew Forrest, a mining and metals magnate said to be worth AUD $27.5bn, (£14.4bn), alleges that Facebook failed to take sufficient action to remove scam adverts, including some featuring his image. - The Times
The team behind GCP Student Living, which was sold to Blackstone for nearly £1.0bn last year, is coming back to the London stock market with a new "co-living" business. GCP Co-Living is looking to raise £300.0m from City investors to buy three blocks of apartments — two already built and one in development. The blocks, all in London, are being bought from The Collective, a British property group that pioneered co-living schemes but which fell into administration last year. - The Times
US close
Wall Street's major indices closed in negative territory on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the losses following some seriously disappointing quarterly figures from Facebook parent Meta Platforms.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.45% at 35,111.16, while the S&P 500 lost 2.44% to 4,477.44 and the Nasdaq Composite was off 3.74% at 13,878.82.