Antofagasta pulls out of hydroelectric project, Synthomer trades ahead of expectations

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open flat on Friday, after closing down 0.54% at 7,208.44 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

Chilean copper miner Antofagasta is to exit the Alto Maipo hydroelectric power project, by selling its 40% stake to partner AES Gener due to an expected overrun of costs. The FTSE 100 company said that following a review it decided that its subsidiary, Minera Los Pelambres, will leave the $2bn project after cost were projected to overrun between 10-20%.

Synthomer issued a trading update for the year to 31 December on Friday, saying the positive trends experienced in its Europe and North America business during the first three quarters of the year continued through Q4, leading to an overall performance ahead of original expectations. “We saw better than expected results across all business segments and further benefits from the ongoing focus on efficiency, new product initiatives, a strengthened procurement function and investment in business development activities,” the FTSE 250 company’s board said.

Newspaper round-up

A French court on Thursday fined British low-cost airline easyJet €60,000 (£52,000) for having refused to allow a disabled passenger to board for “security” reasons. The criminal court in Bayonne, southern France, heard that staff at the budget carrier refused to allow Joseph Etcheveste, 55, to board an Easyjet flight in Biarritz in July 2010 because he was “unaccompanied”. – Guardian

The regulator Ofgem has warned the big six energy companies against raising prices in spring, despite a 15% increase in wholesale costs. It said rising wholesale gas and electricity prices were largely to blame for driving costs upwards, along with renewable energy subsidies. But its chief executive, Dermot Nolan, said this was not an excuse for tariff hikes. – Guardian

Europe's trade chief has warned in stark terms that Britain will start at 18th place down the list of countries trying to negotiate a trade deal with the EU and will face a series of extremely difficult negotiations after Brexit. Cecilia Malmström, the EU trade commissioner, said the UK would have to withdraw from all of the EU’s 38 trade agreements with other countries, and can only begin fresh talks once it has actually left the union. - Telegraph

Philip Hammond has vowed to make the UK as competitive as possible on the world stage, describing the challenge as “an existential necessity”. The Chancellor said that to do so the UK must remain “one of the most open economies in the world” in terms of both trade and attitude, as he cautioned “nobody wants to see Britain pulling up the drawbridge”. – Telegraph

One of the City’s most influential investor groups is set to intervene again at Rolls-Royce to help investors obtain answers as to how the jet maker was able to get away with decades of systematic corruption and bribery. The Investor Forum, whose members manage £14 trillion of assets, said it had already talked to Rolls-Royce last year after 14 investors, who together hold 34 percent of the shares, sought help over the company’s “deteriorating situation”. The forum said it would “engage” again in the wake of the latest damaging revelations about Rolls-Royce although it added that it had received no requests to do so yet. – The Times

The vast majority of businesses are unaware of a shake-up of the water industry in England that will allow them to negotiate cheaper supply deals or switch to a new provider. From April 1 more than 1.2 million businesses, councils and public sector organisations will be able to choose their “water retailer”. – The Times

US close

US stocks closed in the red on Thursday as investors exercised caution ahead of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.37% to 19,732.40 points, the S&P 500 slid 0.36% to 2,263.69 points and the Nasdaq declined 0.28% to 5,540.08 points.

Meanwhile, oil prices rose, even as the Energy Information Administration reported an unexpected increase in US weekly crude inventories. US commercial crude inventories rose by 2.3m barrels in the week through 13 January to 485.5m barrels.

American Petroleum Institute data released on Wednesday showed US crude stocks fell 5.04m barrels last week, exceeding expectations for a 342,000-barrel drop.

West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.46% to $51.32 per barrel and Brent edged up 0.51% to $54.20 per barrel at 2114 GMT.

The market was looking ahead to Trump’s inauguration as US President on Friday with the focus on whether the new leader will deliver on promises such as ramping up infrastructure spending and cutting taxes.