Outflows continue at Aberdeen, Antofagasta sells Michilla mine
London open
The FTSE 100 index is predicted to fall 13 points on Monday, according to pre-market trading.
Stocks to watch
Annual profits fell by more than a quarter at Aberdeen Asset Management as its funds under management were hit by almost £33bn of outflows. With net revenue down 14% to £1.0bn, underlying pre-tax profits shrank 28.3% to £352.7m, with the board keeping the total dividend flat at 19.5p. Assets under management grew 10% to £312.1bn.
Antofagasta said on Monday that it has agreed to sell the Michilla mine to Chilean mining group Haldeman Mining Company for up to $52m following the closure of the mine at the end of last year. The deal includes the open pit mine, the underground mine, the cathode production plant and various mining properties.
JD Sports Fashion has acquired outdoor pursuits retail chain Go Outdoors for £128.3m from owners that include private equity group 3i. JD has paid £112.3m cash and assumed £16m of debt to purchase Sheffield-based Go Outdoors, which is profitable from its 58 stores, most of which are based in out-of-town retail parks.
Newspaper round-up
Investigators are looking into whether Tesco Bank ignored a warning about a security flaw in its payment system that allowed fraudsters to steal millions of pounds from the accounts of thousands of its customers. Officials at the Financial Conduct Authority and the National Crime Agency believe that Tesco might have failed to act on an industry-wide warning from Visa a year ago. - The Times
Rolls-Royce faces fresh embarrassment after it admitted parts of its financial forecasts were wrong and it had to send out a correction. The blunders came in the engineering group’s disastrous capital markets day two weeks ago which sent the shares plunging, and has seen Rolls draw criticism from City analysts. - Telegraph
Britain's biggest bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral is planning an audacious multi-billion pound bid for Australia’s largest betting company, Tabcorp. The British betting giant is understood to have appointed advisers within the last few weeks to work on the proposal. - Mail
Regulators have said that they expect to announce a final decision on the future of BT and Openreach within weeks. Ofcom has approached the European Commission to discuss how it could force BT to legally separate from its broadband infrastructure unit. - The Times
US close
Wall Street's main stock market indices notched up fresh record highs in a shortened session on Friday following the Thanksgiving break, although it was defensive issues that paced the advance.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 0.36% or 68.96 points to 19,152.14 points, the S&P 500 leapt 0.39% or 8.63 points to end at 2,213.35 points, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.34% to 5,398.92 points, although the day´s dealings transpired amid very low trading volumes.
The best performing industrial groups were: Water (2.48%), Gas distribution (1.82%) and Utilities (1.42%), even as benchmark 10-year US Treasury note yields nudged higher by one basis point to 2.36%, although they did close near their lows for the day.