Weekly review

The FTSE 100 closed the week up 54.81 points to 6,189.64.

Equity view

Shares in Argos owner Home Retail Group tumbled in afternoon trade after Steinhoff International Holdings sad it had no intention of making an offer for the company, clearing the path for Sainsbury’s.

BT Group announced the appointment of Simon Lowth as group finance director on Friday, also assigning him an executive board director.

FTSE 100-listed house builder Berkeley Group said it expected current year results to be at the top end of expectations, after absorbing approximately £25m of accelerated operating expenses.

Bowing to pressure from institutional shareholders, GlaxoSmithKline chief executive Andrew Witty has decided to retire from the company at the end of March next year.

Full year pre-tax profits at fashion retailer Ted Baker rose 20. 3% to £58. 7m on the back of a 17% jump in revenue to £456. 2m from store expansions and a solid performance in retail and wholesale operations.

LondonMetric Property added three distribution warehouses to its estate on Thursday, spending £21. 8m on the 212,600 square feet of space. The net initial yield on the purchase was 6. 6%, contractually rising to 6. 9% within two years.

OneSavings Bank lifted its profits and grew its loan book in 2015, it reported in its preliminary results on Thursday. Underlying profit before tax was up 52% to £105. 9m, and loans and advances grew 31% to £5. 1bn.

Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh will retire from the business on 1 July 2016 and will be succeeded by the chief executive of the copper and coal division Jean-Sébastien Jacques, the company said.

Drug group Hikma Pharmaceuticals reported revenue of $1. 44bn (£1. 02bn) in its final results for 2015 on Wednesday, down 3% on what was an exceptionally strong 2014.

The London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse said they have agreed to merge.

Royal Bank of Scotland is axing 448 investment banking jobs as part of a radical restructuring and is planning to transfer millions of pounds of pension-related costs on to employees, the Financial Times reported, citing a bank spokesman.

Lower copper prices took the shine off full year results at Antofagasta as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation plunged 58% to $890. 7m and the company was forced to cancel its final dividend.

Cairn Energy painted itself in a strong cash position on Tuesday, as it updated the market on its operations in the 2015 calendar year.

The recovery plan instigated by new Balfour Beatty boss Leo Quinn appears to be working, with full-year pre-tax losses cut by £105m to £199m and a plan to reinstate its dividend later this year.

Industrial property investor Hansteen lifted full year profits 30. 6% to £171. 4m and said conditions in European markets remained ripe for it to continue to grow earnings.

Sainsbury's posted positive sales growth in the fourth quarter, the first quarterly sales growth in more than two years, good news it would expect to boost its shares and its bid to acquire Home Retail Group.

Online grocery delivery firm Ocado said group gross sales rose 15. 3% to £312. 4m in the quarter to 21 February.

Legal & General boosted its full year dividend by a fifth to 13. 4p per share in its annual results on Tuesday - and committed to more progressive increases - against market expectations.

Economic news

Small businesses in the United Kingdom were in a dour mood in the first quarter, amid weak exports, a slump in the oil price, public sector austerity and uncertainty surrounding the impact which the 23 June referendum on continued membership of the European Union, the results of a survey showed.

The Bank of England voted unanimously to keep interest rates unchanged on Thursday, a move that was expected by analysts.

Gross mortgage lending in the UK rose 29. 6% year-on-year to £17. 6bn last month but was down 5% than the month before.

Britain is on course to achieve a surplus of £10. 4bn by 2019-20, Chancellor George Osborne said on Wednesday as he delivered the UK Budget 2016.

The unemployment rate in the UK was steady at 5. 1% in January, in line with economists’ expectations, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

International events

The University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index unexpectedly fell in March, to a reading of 90. 0 from 91. 7 in February and versus expectations of 92. 2.

Further interest rate reductions in the single currency area are possible if the European Central Bank's recently announced barrage of new measures fails to have the desired effect, a top official said at the end of the week.

A measure of the shortfall in America’s current account transactions with the rest of the world improved slightly at the end of 2015, mainly as a result of fewer oil imports, albeit by less than economists had expected.

Manufacturing conditions in the Philadelphia region improved far more than expected in March, turning positive for the first time in seven months, according to the latest report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

US initial jobless claims increased by 7,000 in the last week to 265,000, less than the 268,000 that had been forecast.

Eurozone inflation remained in negative territory on an annual basis in February but rose more than expected compared to the previous month, while core consumer prices also rose slowly.

Rate setters in the US chose to keep interest rates unchanged, referencing continuing risks from global economic and financial developments albeit with a small caveat, they would be closely monitoring inflation developments.

Russia's energy minister confirmed on Wednesday that a meeting of OPEC members and non-OPEC nations would go ahead next month to discuss the possibility of a production freeze.

US oil inventories increased slightly last week but product stockpiles declined, according to government data.

Demand for crude oil supplied by the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries was now expected to increase slightly less in 2016, the cartel said in its Monthly Oil Market Report for March.

US retail sales fell by less than expected in February and, coming as January's data was revised down into negative territory, economists said this added another reason for the Federal Reserve to hold off from raising interest rates.

Chinese economic data released over the weekend raised concerns activity might be slowing despite government stimulus, but officials said seasonal factors were partly to blame and some economists agreed – at least with a view to the short-term.