Weekly review

The FTSE 100 ended the week up 11.12 points to 6,138.50.

Equity view

Megabrewers Anheuser-Busch InBev and FTSE 100-traded SABMiller did some asset-shuffling with Brazilian brewer Ambev this week, ahead of the proposed combination of the British and Belgian companies.

Weak emerging country currencies and a strong euro combined to hit sales at bottler Coca-Cola HBC, with net sales revenues down 2. 7% to €1.3bn in the first quarter.

Royal Bank of Scotland reportedly plans to axe around 200 branch jobs in Scotland, southwest England and Wales, with the lender confirming cuts were being made but not the exact number.

SuperGroup lifted its full year profit guidance after a powerful fourth-quarter where retail sales from the street fashion group surpassed last year's strong performance.

Full year pre-tax profits at telecoms group TalkTalk more than halved to £14m after last year's embarrassing cyber attack cost the company £42m.

Vedanta Resources slashed its dividend by more than half as falling commodities prices hammered full-year profits.

Underlying first quarter operating profits at paper manufacturer Mondi rose 14% year on year to €269m with strong contributions from consumer packaging, uncoated fine paper and South Africa Division offsetting the impact of lower selling prices in certain packaging paper segments and margin pressure in fibre packaging.

In spite of a 13% decline in net advertising revenue in April, ITV said it expected it to be "broadly flat" for the first half of the year and for the group to deliver "good profit growth".

Premier Oil on Wednesday said it was on track to deliver “at or above” the upper end of its 2016 guidance.

Industrial property investor SEGRO announced on Wednesday that it has agreed amended bank facilities totalling €780m (£614m).

Savills confirmed UK commercial and residential property activity has slowed in the run up to the UK's European Union referendum, but that its expectations for the year remain unchanged.

William Hill assured that trading has stabilised since its shock profit warning in March, but a mixed trading update did not impress analysts and investors much.

John Wood Group said it expects full year earnings will fall around 20%, in line with current market expectations.

Passenger transport group National Express reported on a “strong start” to the year on Wednesday, updating the market on its operations for the first four months of 2016.

Underlying revenue grew 5. 8% at foodservice and support firm Compass Group in its first half, it reported on Wednesday, with the figure totalling £9. 7bn in the six months to 31 March.

After cutting first-half losses as revenues rose more than expected, travel group Tui Group revealed plans to sell UK sailing and outdoor holidays unit Specialist Group.

Information services group Experian grew total and organic revenue 5% at constant exchange rates in the year to 31 March, it reported on Wednesday, to $4. 55bn, with total revenue from continuing activities sitting at $4.48bn.

Imperial Brands' French subsidiary has revealed plans to appeal to France's top court against laws that will force cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging from the start of next year.

Low-cost carrier easyJet swung to a loss in its half-year numbers on Tuesday, reporting a loss before tax of £24m for the six months to 31 March, against a £7m profit a year earlier.

Outsourcing group Capita said it was confident of growing organic sales 4% in 2016 despite having secured less than half the amount of contracts as at the same time last year as some contract decisions take "a little longer than expected".

Tata Steel Europe is another step closer to selling its British operations after seven expressions of interest were taken forward to the next stage.

Events company ITE Group posted a rise in first-half pre-tax profit as it announced the appointment of a new chief executive.

Sales took a turn for the worse at Dignity in the first quarter, with the funeral services provider reporting a 5% decrease in revenue in the 13 weeks to 25 March on Monday, to £81. 2m.

Economic news

British retail sales in April fell on a like-for-like basis compared to last year, with non-food sales outweighing positive food sales.

The UK leaving the European Union would have multiple negative consequences for the British economy and financial markets, the International Monetary Fund warned on Friday.

The British financial services industry faces “serious risks” of another mis-selling scandal, with new pension reforms identified as potential trigger by a powerful parliamentary committee.

UK construction output fell 3.6% month-on-month in March compared to a 0.9% fall in February and analysts’ forecasts for a 3.2% decline.

The Bank of England has cut its growth forecast for 2016 gross domestic product to 2% from the previous 2. 2%, but admitted its estimates could be significantly affected by a Brexit vote.

The Bank of England voted unanimously on Thursday to leave interest rates at 0. 50% and size of the asset purchase programme at £375bn, as expected by analysts.

House price growth in the UK slowed in April, the results of a RICS survey showed, but both surveyors and analysts expected to see a re-acceleration in the back-half of 2016.

UK economic growth slowed in the last three months as the effect of uncertainty over the EU referendum spread its tentacles ever wider, according to estimates from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

UK industrial output growth returned to growth in March, according to the Office for National Statistics, but at a slower rate than economists had predicted after a weak start to the year.

British retail sales in April fell on a like-for-like basis compared to last year, with non-food sales outweighing positive food sales. The monthly Retail Sales Monitor (RSM) from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG showed total sales were flat for a second month in a row, but the LFL retail sales for April fell 0.9% on the same month last year, well short of the consensus +0.5%.

UK house price growth in the three months to April slowed more than expected, with the rate of growth compared to the preceding quarter and the same quarter last year both at their lowest since last autumn, Halifax said.

International events

US retail sales rose more than expected in April, driven by purchases of automobiles, the Commerce Department said on Friday. Sales jumped 1.3% last month, the largest gain since March 2015, compared to a 0.3% decline in March.

The Eurozone economy grew 0.5% in the first three months of the year compared to the fourth quarter, Eurostat revealed. Analysts had pencilled in 0.6% quarter-on-quarter growth in the first quarter following a 0.3% gain in the previous three months.

The Labor Department said US weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rose in the latest week. Initial jobless claims climbed to 294,000 in the week to 7 May from 274,000 the previous week, compared to forecasts of 270,000.

US oil stockpiles registered an unexpected fall over the previous week, government data revealed, triggering a sharp jump in crude oil futures on Wednesday.

US wholesale inventories edged slightly higher in March, rising by 0. 1% to reach $583. 6bn according to the Department of Commerce.

Deflationary pressures bearing down on the Chinese economy lessened in April as energy prices rebounded and a rise in pork prices accelerated. The country's consumer price index rose at a 2.3% year-on-year clip in April, holding steady for a fourth consecutive month, in-line with consensus estimates. Factory gate inflation on the other hand strengthened from the -4.3% year-on-year drop observed in March to -3.4% in April (Capital Economics: -4.5%).

Greece's parliament approved pension and tax reform measures over the weekend, which analysts said may help the country to clinch access to the emergency funding it required to avoid another recession, although they continued to show concern regarding the medium-term growth potential of the economy.