Metro confirms fundraising, Centrica sticks to guidance
London open
The FTSE 100 was called to open six points higher at 7,209.
Stocks to watch
Metro Bank said its plans to raise £350m of equity capital were well advanced after the bank was forced to reassure their money was safe.
British Gas owner Centrica maintained full year guidance on cash flow and net debt but said a “challenging” environment due to falling gas prices, tariff caps, warmer weather and nuclear outages had forced it to conduct a strategic review of its portfolio.
“While a number of the factors leading to the challenging trading environment are temporary in nature, they will impact financial performance in the first half of 2019 and have also put some further pressure on the outlook for the full year,” the company said.
Polymer solutions provider Victrex reported weakened interim results as group revenue dropped by 13% to £145.7m on the back of a 16% dip in sales volumes to 1,899 tonnes after the performance of its Automotive division dragged figures lower alongside adverse currency movement and consumer electronics headwinds.
Newspaper round-up
Lloyds Banking Group, Foxtons and Paddy Power are among almost 100 firms that will be highlighted this year by an influential investor group for failing to boost the number of women on their boards. According to documents seen by the Guardian, the Investment Association (IA), which represents City firms with £7.7tn in assets under management, is preparing to shame 94 listed companies for dragging their heels on gender diversity. It will do so by stamping their annual reports with the highest warning label. – Guardian
A senior Bank of England policymaker has warned more delay to Brexit could further depress business investment and damage the long-term economic outlook. The Bank’s deputy governor, Ben Broadbent, said a delay beyond the new deadline of 31 October would harm Britain’s prospects as it faced the longest run of falling business investment since the second world war. – Guardian
Uber's market debut on Friday means that 2019 is already the biggest year on record for American tech floats, creating an unprecedented amount of new wealth for their early investors, according to research. A report from the market analysis firm CB Insights put the total "exit value" of this year's US floats at $130bn (£105bn), narrowly beating the current record of $129bn in 2012, which was mainly driven by Facebook's $104bn public offering. – Telegraph
US close
Wall Street's main equity gauges reversed heavy early losses after American and Chinese trade negotiators said the latest round of trade talks had been "constructive" or "gone fairly well", respectively.
But that wasn't enough for ride-hailing outfit Uber, whose shares finished lower on the day of their stockmarket debut, even as they topped the leaderboard as the most heavily traded issue on the NYSE and Nasdaq.