Woodford looks to reassure, HgCapital plans £80m placing

London open

The FTSE 100 was called to open 32 points higher at 7,332.

Stocks to watch

Woodford Patient Capital Trust, the listed fund run by Neil Woodford, on Monday said its operational performance had not been affected by the suspension of his main equity fund.

In a statement, the board said it was “closely monitoring” the situation and engaging with shareholders and advisers.

HgCapital Trust on said it planned to raise £80m through a placing of new shares.

The FTSE 250 company which focuses on unquoted investments in European software and service businesses, said it wanted to raise more equity in order to maximise opportunities to access Hg's “attractive proprietary pipeline”.

Newspaper round-up

The government has been taken to task by its own MPs for sending billions of pounds overseas to help build power plants that burn fossil fuels while claiming a climate victory on home soil. The environmental audit committee said the UK is sabotaging its climate credentials by paying out “unacceptably high” fossil fuel subsidies to developing nations, while claiming to lead world in tackling the climate crisis. It called on ministers to stop by 2021 using taxpayer funds to lock poorer nations into a fossil fuel future. – Guardian

Boris Johnson has promised to cut taxes for around 3 million higher earners by raising the 40p threshold from £50,000 to £80,000 if he becomes prime minister, in a move condemned by senior Labour figures. The Tory leadership hopeful used the Telegraph to make the case for the cut, saying, “We should be raising thresholds of income tax – so that we help the huge numbers that have been captured in the higher rate by fiscal drag.” – Guardian

Allied Minds has caved in to pressure from investors and scrapped its controversial long-term bonus scheme. The technology investor, based in Boston but listed on the London Stock Exchange, said it had cancelled awards that were due to be issued last month, and would bar staff from racking up payouts from the scheme in the future. – Telegraph

Sir John Timpson, one of Britain's top retailers, has accused Amazon of "predatory trading" and warned the US e-commerce giant is on track to destroy Britain's retail industry. "It's taken them 24 years to get to this point. In another 24-25 years you will not be able to trade with anyone else,” said Sir John, whose family controls a chain of over 2,000 high street shoe and watch repair stores as well as photo processing, dry cleaning and mobile phone repair businesses. - Telegraph

US close

Wall Street stocks recorded some solid gains on Friday, seeing out its best week since November on a four-day winning streak amid hopes of progress on trade talks between the US and Mexico and increased chances of a Fed rate by the end of the year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.02% at 25,984.14, while the S&P 500 closed 1.05% firmer at 2,873.30 and the Nasdaq saw out the session 1.66% higher at 7,742.10.