RHI Magnesita takes majority stake in Jinan New Emei, 888 Holdings finance chief steps down

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open eight points higher on Friday, having closed up 0.89% at 7,794.04 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

Gambling firm 888 Holdings said its chief financial officer was stepping down and reported a 3% fall in group revenues for 2022. The company on Friday said CFO Yariv Dafna would leave at the end of March. 888’s online revenues fell 15% during the year as controls in the UK to protect gamblers took effect, although retail sales were up 54% across the year.

RHI Magnesita said it was buying a 65% shareholding in China’s Jinan New Emei for 293 million Chinese yuan (€40m). Based in Shandong province, Jinan New Emei Industries makes refractory slide gate plates and systems, nozzles and mixes for use in steel flow control, and employs more than 1,300 people.

Newspaper round-up

Royal Mail has been hit by a ransomware attack by a criminal group, which has threatened to publish the stolen information online. The postal service has received a ransom note purporting to be from LockBit, a hacker group widely thought to have close links to Russia. Royal Mail revealed that it had been hit by a “cyber incident” on Wednesday, and said it was unable to send parcels or letters abroad. The company asked customers to refrain from submitting new items for international delivery, although domestic services and imports were unaffected. – Guardian

Union leaders have agreed to work jointly with train operating companies on a revised pay offer after a meeting to resolve the long-running dispute over remuneration, jobs and conditions. Representatives from the RMT and TSSA unions met on Thursday with the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), representing train operating companies, in an effort to break the deadlock after months of disruption to the network from 24-hour strikes. – Guardian

Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, is to have his pay package cut by more than 40 per cent to $49 million this year, at his own request. In a US stock market filing last night the tech company said that Cook, 62, will have a “target compensation of $49 million in 2023, a decline of around 40 per cent compared to what he earned in 2022”. The Apple chief’s latest pay was based on “balanced shareholder feedback, Apple’s exceptional performance and a recommendation from Mr Cook,” the iPhone maker said in the filing. – The Times

The British Army is to use 3D metal printed parts to repair armoured vehicles for the first time in a move which could extend the life of much of the force’s equipment. The pieces, made using a layering process by adding small amounts of steel to build a part, were fitted to periscopes on Titan armoured bridge launchers and Trojan minesweepers. – Telegraph

US close

Wall Street trading finished in positive territory on Thursday, as investors digested last month's all-important consumer price index.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.64% at 34,189.97, as the S&P 500 added 0.34% to 3,983.17 and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.64% firmer at 11,001.10.

The Dow closed 216.96 points higher on Thursday, extending the gains it recorded in Wednesday’s session.

December's CPI print was in focus, with the data revealing that the cost of living in the US had slipped a tad more than expected last month.

According to the Department of Labor, the annual rate of headline consumer prices fell from 7.1% for November to 6.5% in December, beating consensus estimates for a print of 6.6%.

At the core level, which strips out the volatile food and energy components, CPI was up by 5.7% year-on-year, versus 6.0% in the month before and in line with economists' forecasts.