Hammerson sells Newcastle Mall

London’s FTSE 100 is seen starting 31 points lower than Friday’s close at 6021.

Stocks to watch

Hammerson has agreed to sell Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Monument Mall to the Standard Life Investments UK Property Fund for £75m.

It’s one of the two sales the FTSE 100 company announced on Monday, with the disposal of a small land interest in Kingston-upon-Thames to St George for £12m.

It had acquired the mall in 2011 for £28m and reconfigured it in 2013 to transform it into a high-quality shopping and dining destination, securing a number of high-end retail and leisure brands.

Wood Group has acquired Kelchner Inc, a privately-owned US-based provider of construction and energy field services.

Kelchner will operate within the onshore business of Wood Group PSN Americas, providing construction capabilities primarily to the midstream and upstream oil and gas sector in the Marcellus and Utica shale basins, and broader industrial sectors.

FTSE 100-listed Randgold Resources announced on Monday it had pulled out of its partnership with AngloGold Ashanti to redevelop the Obuasi Mine in Ghana.

The two firms previously announced their intentions to form a joint venture on 16 September 2015.

At the time, Randgold had described the partnership as "groundbreaking", saying it would lead to Obuasi becoming a viable, long-term mining business with "an attractive cost structure and returns".

However, Monday's announcement saw Randgold describing the plan as unsatisfactory.

"After undertaking a due diligence exercise into the mine and the redevelopment opportunity the mine affords, and following the work undertaken on the revised development plan, Randgold has determined that the development plan will not satisfy Randgold's internal investment requirements", the firm said in a statement.

In the press

Warren East, Rolls-Royce’s chief executive, has flagged new risks to the performance of the aerospace group’s diesel engine business — the only division to have so far escaped a downgrade in the past five profit warnings. Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, Mr East voiced “disquiet” about trading conditions in the unit that supplies power systems for the mining and offshore oil industries. – Financial Times

Christmas shoppers have been snapping up festive bargains, as retailers slashed prices to cope with tough trading conditions. At Oxford Circus on Sunday, throngs of consumers exiting the tube station to the sound of steel drums playing Jingle Bells, were greeted by a forest of sale signs and discount tags. – Guardian

The UK government reacted too slowly to the crisis in the steel industry that has caused more than 5,000 job losses and left the sector permanently damaged, a parliamentary committee has said. Although the government viewed the steel industry as important, it did not respond to warning signals about its mounting problems, which included reduced demand, falling prices and dumping of cheap steel by China, according to a report backed by all MPs on the business, innovation and skills committee. – Guardian

US close

Wall Street saw a second day of selling after Wednesday´s Fed decision to raise rates, on far higher than usual trading volumes amid the quarterly expiry of futures and options tied to stock indices and individual shares, an event known as "quadruple witching" in market parlance.

Stocks dropped immediately lower coming out of the gate, with little in terms of fresh economic news and with most traders making sure their books were squared going into the typically extremely quiet holiday season.

The Dow Jones Industrials fell 2.10% or 367 points to 17,129, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were down by 36 and 80 points each to 2,006 and 4,923, respectively - with all three market gauges closing at their respective session lows.