Balfour sells Connect stake, Wizz Air buys more Airbus jets

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to add around four points on a curtailed Friday session, with trading finishing at 1230 GMT a day after closing at a new record closing high of 7,622.88.

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Balfour Beatty said it will pay down debt and its full year results will be higher than recently guided after it sold off another chunk of its stake in Connect Plus, the company which operates the M25 orbital motorway. The infrastructure construction specialist sold a 7.5% stake for £62m cash, making an expected £32m profit, to funds managed by Dalmore Capital.

Low-cost airline Wizz Air said it has completed and signed documentation with Airbus which, amongst other things, provides for the purchase of 146 Airbus A320neo Family aircraft. This purchase will enable Wizz to deliver on its fleet replacement and expansion plans and to continue delivering strong growth for the next decade.

Newspaper round-up

Britain is set to have the worst wage growth of any wealthy nation next year, ranking behind Italy, Greece and Hungary, according to analysis by the TUC. The UK is forecast to come bottom from 32 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development wealthy nations for wage performance in 2018, according to the study of OECD figures by the unions’ umbrella group. - Guardian

The A380 superjumbo could be running out of runway after reports that Airbus will end production of the world’s largest commercial aircraft if it does not receive a new order from Emirates. Airbus did not deny reports last night that it was drawing up plans to phase out production of the A380. - The Times

SoftBank has bought a major stake in Uber at a steep 30pc discount, after a chaotic year in which the ride-hailing firm faced a string of scandals, saw its chief executive resign and was hit with UK city bans. According to a source familiar with the deal, Uber's shareholders have agreed to sell more than a 14pc stake to an investor group led by SoftBank, crossing the threshold needed for the deal to complete. - Telegraph

US close

US stocks notched up another record high on the penultimate trading day of 2017, with oil companies leading the way as crude prices firmed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 60 points to close at 24,834, the 71st new record closing high it has set this year, while the S&P 500 added five points to 2,687 and the Nasdaq Composite put on 11 points to 6,950.