OM Asset Management CEO steps down, John Laing updates market on investments

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 10 points lower on Friday, after closing down 0.51% at 7,350.32 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

Old Mutual’s affiliated asset management arm, OM Asset Management, announced overnight that Peter Bain was stepping down from his roles as president, chief executive officer and director - positions he had held since 2011 - as of Friday. The firm’s chairman James J. Ritchie would serve as executive chairman and interim CEO, while the board conducted a thorough search for the company's next CEO.

International originator, active investor and manager of infrastructure projects John Laing Group issued a pre-close update for the half-year to 30 June on Friday morning. The FTSE 250 firm said it had made investment commitments in two of its three geographical regions during the period - Asia Pacific and Europe, with total investment commitments in 2017 to date of £111m.

Newspaper round-up

Irish authorities have said they have clinched deals with more than a dozen London-based banks and finance houses to move some of their operations to Dublin in preparation for Brexit. As Dublin continues to battle with Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Paris for the Brexit spoils, the head of international financial services at Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority said definitive decisions had now been taken on an Irish location by these firms. – Guardian

Labour politicians told ministers “not to do a grubby deal with the Murdochs” in order to push through 21st Century Fox’s £11.7bn takeover of Sky after Ofcom warned there were serious concerns that any takeover would hand the family increased influence over news and politics in the UK. The MPs’ intervention came in response to the culture secretary telling the Commons on Thursday that she was “minded” to accept the regulator’s conclusion that the Competition and Markets Authority should conduct a full six-month examination of the deal. – Guardian

Virgin Media plans to make around 200 redundancies following a management shake-up at the cable operator. It is understood that staff at risk of losing their jobs were contacted by phone Thursday afternoon. The majority are thought to work at Virgin Media’s Hammersmith headquarters. – Telegraph

Small companies are more concerned about the threat posed by cybercrime than they are about Brexit, a new survey has revealed. A poll of 500 SMEs, conducted by Barclaycard, found that 44pc were worried about being hit by cybercrime or a data breach, following a spate of attacks that has hit organisations worldwide, including the NHS. – Telegraph

The tumbling cost of offshore wind power could mean that it turns out to be 25 per cent cheaper than energy from Hinkley Point nuclear plant when subsidies are awarded to new projects this year, the industry regulator has suggested. Developers behind a series of proposed offshore wind farms are vying to secure government contracts that will guarantee a price for the electricity they generate for 15 years. – The Times

Big businesses need up to a year to prepare for new customs arrangements to prevent trade with the EU grinding to a halt after Brexit, KPMG has warned. David Davis, the Brexit secretary, has said that he did not envisage Britain’s transition arrangements including a customs union with the EU or continuing with present arrangements. KPMG warned that the timescale now looks “frankly unrealistic”. – The Times

US close

Markets in the US finished in the red on Thursday, with a number of New York’s big tech stocks dragging the benchmarks down.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.78% to close at 21,287.03, the S&P 500 was off 0.86% at 2,419.70, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 tumbled 1.74% to 5,653.02.

On the Dow, high-tech stocks such as 3M, Apple and Boeing led the losses, while the information technology sector slid 1.8% on the S&P 500.

Computing stocks, including Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook and Netflix were all down more than 1%, with hardware makers also losing out, as AMD and Nvidia were down 4.8% and 3.3% respectively.

Technology had been the best performing sector so far in 2017, improving more than 15% in the year-to-date, though it had showed weakness through June, dropping almost 2%.