Randgold ramps up at Tongon, Reckitt Benckiser boosts interim dividend

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 14 points lower on Monday, after closing down 0.47% at 7,452.91 on Friday.

Stocks to watch

Randgold Resources was continuing to ramp up production at its Tongon gold mine in Côte d'Ivoire, tracking towards its 2017 target of 285,000 ounces, the company reported on Monday morning. The FTSE 100 company confirmed that, with Tongon now operating to plan, its focus had shifted to finding additional reserves and resources to replace depleted ounces and extend the mine’s life beyond the currently anticipated four years.

Real estate investment trust Tritax Big Box said on Monday it had bought the freehold of the former Littlebrook Power Station site at Dartford, London for £65m funded by equity.

Reckitt Benckiser boosted its interim dividend 14% as it reported a solid first-half performance in the face of "tough" market conditions and slightly weaker profit margins from newly acquired baby food business Mead Johnson Nutrition. For the first six months of the year, Reckitt generated £5.02bn revenues, an increase of 14% or 2% at constant exchange rates, as the consumer goods company indicated earlier this month when it warned of the effects of a cyber attack.

Newspaper round-up

Ministers from some of the world’s leading oil-producing nations are due to meet in St Petersburg today, amid mounting concern that an international deal to bolster crude prices may be at risk of unravelling. The meeting in the Russian city comes amid growing evidence that some members of the Opec club of 14 exporters have ceased complying fully with a deal brokered eight months ago aimed at reducing world oil supplies by 1.2 million barrels per day. - The Times

The number of UK companies issuing profit warnings fell sharply in the second quarter, but experts warned there could be worse to come. According to advisory group EY, quoted companies issued 45 warnings in the three months to June, a 40% fall on the previous quarter and a third lower than this time last year. - Guardian

British Gas customers face price rises as early as next month, the boss of the company that owns the energy business has hinted. Iain Conn, the group chief executive of Centrica, said that his businesses were “not immune” to the 15 per cent increase in wholesale costs for energy suppliers over the past year and suggested that consumers may have to share some of the pain. - The Times

America’s biggest aviation trade body has called for the airline industry to be dealt with separately in Brexit negotiations, saying it is “absolutely essential” that new deals are struck with Europe and the US. Airlines for America, whose members include American Airlines, Southwest and United Continental, said there was a particular pressure to get an aviation deal agreed because the sector did not have historic rules to fall back on in the event the UK and EU cannot strike a Brexit deal. - Telegraph

Banks could be preparing to take a further hit of £500 million to compensate victims of mis-sold payment protection insurance because claims have spiked since customers were given a deadline to complain. Lloyds could add about £200 million to its PPI bill when it reports its half-year results this week, taking its total cost from it to nearly £18 billion, according to analysts at UBS. Lloyds added an extra £350 million to its bill in March. - The Times

US close

Stocks drifted slightly lower ahead of the next US central bank policy meeting, weighed down by a poor outlook from industrial conglomerate General Electric and further negative news-flow swirling around the White House.

Tech giants Microsoft and Ebay also ended lower following their latest quarterly updates; albeit just marginally below the record levels hit the day before.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrials was down by 0.15% or 31.71 points to 21,580.07, with the S&P 500 slipping 0.04% or 0.91 points to 2,472.54 and a 0.04% or 2.25 point fall in the Nasdaq Composite which finished at 6,387.75.

In parallel, front month West Texas Intermediate edged higher by 0.17% to $45.85 a barrel on the NYMEX with the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note off by two basis points at 2.24%.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer tendered his resignation after US president Donald Trump hired financier Anthony Scaramucci as his new director of communications.