Rio Tinto to pour another $302m into US Resolution, IWG sells Japan office space to TKP Corp

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 13 points higher on Monday, having closed up 0.26% at 7,437.06 on Friday.

Stocks to watch

Rio Tinto on Monday said it would invest an extra $302m (£231m) to develop its US Resolution copper project as it sought to capitalise on the growing green energy market. The cash will be used to fund additional drilling, ore-body studies, infrastructure improvements and permitting activities, the miner said in a statement. Located in the state of Arizona, Resolution is 55% owned by Rio and 45% by BHP.

IWG continued its shift towards a franchise model on Monday with a £320m deal to sell 100% of its Japanese office space to Tokyo-listed TKP Corporation, with which it has agreed a master franchise agreement. Once the deal is complete, expected next month, TKP will pay the full sum in cash and under the franchise agreement will operate the Japanese centres with full rights to use IWG's Regus, Spaces and OpenOffice brands.

Mediterranean-focused Energean Oil and Gas on Monday said its Karish North exploration well had made a “significant” gas discovery. Preliminary analysis indicated initial gas in place estimates of between 1tn – 1.5tn cubic feet of gas and a high quality reservoir in the B and C sands.

Acacia Mining reported 104,899 ounces of gold production in its first quarter on Monday, which was was 13% below the prior year period due to lower production at North Mara and Buzwagi. The FTSE 250 firm said gold ounces sold for the quarter totalled 104,985, which was in line with production. It said its cash balance as at 31 March amounted to about $99m, which represented a decrease of net cash of approximately $17m during the quarter, which was primarily the result of lower production.

Newspaper round-up

British businesses are the most gloomy they have been about Brexit since the 2016 referendum, with eight out of 10 finance leaders expecting the long-term business environment to be worse as a result of the UK leaving the EU. The accountancy group Deloitte has warned that worries over the long-term impact of Brexit are mounting, with more than half of finance bosses expecting to rein in recruitment and spending. - Guardian

Dividends paid to holders of UK shares jumped to a record high in the first three months of the year, putting investors on track for £100bn in payouts this year. The payments rose 15.7% to £19.7bn, easily a first-quarter record, according to data tracked by Link Asset Services. - Guardian

Cabinet rivals to succeed Theresa May are backing the prime minister to stay in office into the autumn if she fails to get her Brexit deal through parliament. A leading Brexiteer demanded yesterday that Mrs May step down by the end of June and raised the prospect of another move to unseat her within months. - The Times

US close

US stocks closed higher on Friday as bellwether JPMorgan Chase kicked off the first-quarter earnings season with a solid performance and Disney shot up after announcing its foray into the streaming world.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.03% at 26,412.30, while the S&P 500 moved 0.66% firmer to 2,907.41 and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.46% stronger at 7,984.16.

The Dow closed 269 points higher on Friday as JPMorgan Chase led the way, putting on a solid rally after the bank's first-quarter profit and revenue beat analysts' expectations. The S&P 500 closed out the week just shy of topping an all-time high set back in late September, with the other two benchmarks closing within 2% of their own records.

JPM shares closed 4.69% higher after revealing that profit had risen 5% to $9.18bn or $2.65 a share, exceeding expectations of around $2.35 a share. Revenue was also up 5%, to $29.9bn, coming in about $1.5bn better than expected.

Wells Fargo wrapped up the week 2.64% lower despite its first-quarter numbers seeing net income climb 14% year-on-year on the back of cost-cutting exercises and a lower than expected drop in revenues.