Weekly review

The FTSE 100 ended the week down 20.82 points, or 0.26%, closing at 7,911.16 on Friday.

Equity view

Oil and gas titan Shell has raised its short-term production forecasts and said it expects an increase in margins as it updated its guidance for the first quarter on Friday. Integrated gas production is now tipped to come it at 960-1,000 thousand barrels of oil equivalents per day (kboe/d), up from February's guidance of 930-990 kboe/d, while the upstream production guidance range has been narrowed to 1,820-1,920 kboe/d from 1,730-1,930 kboe/d previously.

OSB Group said on Friday that it has appointed Victoria Hyde as its new chief financial officer and executive director with effect from 10 May. Hyde joined OSBG as deputy CFO in September 2022, specifically as part of the board’s executive succession planning.

Shares in Alliance Pharma slipped on Friday after the healthcare company said its full-year results would be delayed. Alliance, which had been due to publish its preliminary results for 2023 on 9 April, said figures are now expected to be released on 23 April.

AstraZeneca announced positive high-level results from a phase three trial demonstrating significant advancements in the treatment of limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC) on Friday. The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant said the trial showed that ‘Imfinzi’, or durvalumab, an immunotherapy drug, showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in both overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) among LS-SCLC patients who had not progressed following concurrent chemoradiotherapy (cCRT).

Wincanton confirmed on Friday morning that Ceva Bidco's increased and final bid to acquire Wincanton had lapsed. That had occurred under the terms outlined in the scheme document covering the cash offer made by Ceva for the entirety of Wincanton's issued and to-be-issued shares, initially published on 15 February. Wincanton also updated on the ongoing GXO offer.

Entain, the sports betting and gambling group currently without a permanent chief executive,has announced that chair Barry Gibson will also step down later this year following a four-year tenure. Gibson, who joined the board in November 2019 and became chair in February 2020, has given notice to retire some time before the end of September, depending on when Entain can find a replacement to former CEO Jette Nygaard-Anderson.

Bet365 has been fined £582,120 by the Gambling Commission for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures at its online business. In terms of the social responsibility failures, the Commission said interactions with customers were frequently not tailored to "the specific customer journey or spectrum of harm" and therefore were not meaningful.

Power generation business Drax has signed a new £150m term-loan facility to help refinance its debt. The new facility, which comprises an initial £125m facility with an optional uncommitted extension of £25m, adds to an undrawn £258m term-loan facility signed in February which will be used to refinance 2025 debt maturities.

The Competition and Markets Authority said on Thursday that it will launch an in-depth investigation into the planned £15bn merger between Vodafone and CK Hutchison’s Three that was announced last year. On 22 March, the CMA told Vodafone and Three that they had until 2 April to address the regulator’s competition concerns or face a full investigation.

DS Smith, the packaging group at the centre of a a bidding war between UK-listed Mondi and US firm International Paper, has extended the so-called 'put up or shut up' deadline for the former to make a firm offer. DS Smith and Mondi had reached an in-principle agreement on the key financial terms of a possible takeover on 7 March, valuing DS Smith at £5.14bn.

Meat, seafood and meat alternatives group Hilton Foods saw profits rise by a fifth in 2023 despite modest top-line growth. helped by the turnaround in its seafood business. Adjusted pre-tax profit came in at £66m, up 20.3% at constant currencies, with adjusted operating margins improving to 2.4% from 1.8%. Volumes increased by just 0.7% to 517,347 tonnes, while revenues rose 5.7% to £3.99bn.

Healthcare group Spire has announced the recent sale of one of its leasehold hospitals in Tunbridge Wells for £10m, which it says was part of its "consistent and proactive approach to portfolio management". The Spire Tunbridge Wells business and assets were sold to hospital trust Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust on 31 March, the company announced on Wednesday.

Low-cost airline Ryanair reported an 8% jump in March traffic on Wednesday. Passenger numbers rose to 13.6m from 12.6m in the same month a year earlier, while the load factor - which gauges how full the planes are - was stable at 93%. On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers grew 9% to 183.7m and the load factor ticked up to 94%.

Topps Tiles cautioned on Wednesday that first-half profitability would be hit by a number of factors including a weaker market, as it reported a fall in revenues. In an update for the 26 weeks to 30 March, the tile specialist said total sales were down 5.9% year-on-year to £122.6m, against a record performance in 2023.

Low-cost airline Wizz Air said in an update Wednesday that it carried 4,778,980 passengers in March, marking a 12% increase over the same period last year. The FTSE 250 company said its capacity reached 5,260,659 seats, up 13.6% year-on-year, making for a slight decline in the load factor to 90.8%, down 1.3 percentage points.

RHI Magnesita said it was buying Resco Group, a US-based producer of alumina monolithics and refractories, for up to $430m. Resco makes products for use in the petrochemical, cement, aluminium, and steel making industries, operating seven plants and two raw material sites in the US and two plants in the UK and Canada.

Shares in Renewi rose strongly on Tuesday after the FTSE 250-listed recycling firm announced the opening of a new hard plastics sorting facility in The Netherlands which it said will help deliver on its sustainable organic growth objectives. The facility, first announced last October, is located in Acht and will enable Renewi to separate collected plastics and recycle more contaminated material from construction and demolition waste.

Bank of Georgia announced a milestone in its expansion plans involving the acquisition of Ameriabank on Tuesday. The FTSE 250 company’s shareholders approved the proposed acquisition through an ordinary resolution on 14 March. Following the shareholder approval, the firm said it had has received regulatory clearance from the National Bank of Georgia.

Hutchmed China announced the acceptance and granting of priority review by the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for a new drug application combining fruquintinib and sintilimab for the treatment of advanced endometrial cancer on Tuesday. The AIM-traded firm said the indication, applied for along with Innovent Biologics, targets tumours that had failed prior systemic therapy but were not eligible for curative surgery or radiation.

Engineering services provider Renew Holdings said in an update on Tuesday that its first half trading performance matched management's projections, with robust demand across all its primary markets. The AIM-traded company said its order book remained solidly supported by long-term framework positions, maintaining levels similar to those reported in January, offering promising visibility into the second half of the year.

Economic news

The UK construction sector returned to growth in March, according to a survey released on Friday. The S&P Global construction purchasing managers’ index rose to 50.2 from 49.7 in February, marking the highest level since August 2023. A reading below 50.0 indicates contraction while a reading above signals expansion.

UK house prices fell for the first time in six months in March as falling mortgage rates stalled, according to figures released by Halifax on Friday. House prices declined by 1% on the month in March, following five months of growth and a 0.3% increase in February. On the year, house price growth eased to 0.3% in March from 1.6% a month earlier.

An earlier Easter break slowed the decline in UK retail footfall, fresh data revealed on Friday, with total footfall declining by 1.3% year-on-year in March, although wet weather still kept a lid on growth. The data from BRC-Sensormatic IQ was an improvement from the steeper 6.2% decline seen in February, although it still suggested a persistent challenge for the retail sector. Footfall on the UK high streets decreased 1.5% year-on-year in March, improving from the 9.3% decrease recorded in February.

The number of people selling their homes in the UK surged over Easter, according to new data from Rightmove, with the property portal seeing its busiest day for new listings so far this year. Rightmove said on Friday that 28 March was the biggest day for new sellers coming to market, and the third biggest day for new listings since August 2020.

Impending strikes on the London Underground, scheduled to start next week, were called off on Thursday by the train driver’s union, Aslef. According to the BBC, Aslef declared that its members would not proceed with the planned 24-hour walkout on 8 April and 4 May, after the union and Transport for London (TfL) resolved “key issues”.

UK business activity continued to expand in March, albeit less than expected, according to a survey released on Thursday. The S&P Global services purchasing managers’ index dipped to 53.1 from 53.8 in February. This remained comfortably above the 50.0 mark that separates contraction from expansion and marked the fifth month of growth.

UK new car registrations rose 10.4% in March, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers, as carmakers shored up electrified demand. In what was typically the busiest month of the year due to the new numberplate, 317,786 new cars hit the road with a 24 plate – the best March performance since 2019, although still -30.6% below pre-pandemic levels. It also marked the 20th consecutive month of growth.

Factory sector activity expanded last month for the first time since July 2022, according to the results of a closely followed survey. S&P Global's manufacturing sector Purchasing Managers' Index rose from a reading of 47.5 for February to 50.3 in March (Preliminary: 49.9).

House price inflation in the U.K. ebbed unexpectedly last month, the results of a closely followed survey revealed. According to Nationwide, in seasonally adjusted terms, house prices recorded a month-on-month dip of 0.2% in March (consensus: 0.3%). Worth noting, in February prices had risen by 0.7%.

International events

The US economy generated far more jobs than anticipated during the previous month. According to the US Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms non-farm payrolls increased by 303,000 in March. Economists had pencilled-in an increase of 200,000.

Eurozone retail sales fell more than expected in February, according to figures released Friday by Eurostat. The volume of retail trade was down 0.5% in the single-currency region after staying flat for the month of January, which was revised down from a 0.1% gain. The consensus estimate was for a 0.4% drop. Compared with February 2023, sales were down 0.7%, compared with a revised 0.9% annual decline in January.

Hamburg Commercial Bank's Eurozone construction purchasing managers index dropped to 42.4 in March from a reading of 42.9 in February. Output decreased at a slightly quicker pace, with marked declines in housing activity driving the overall contraction as the sector posted its largest decline in seven months.

German factory orders rose by 0.2% month-on-month in February, according to the Federal Statistical Office, missing estimates for a 0.8% jump but recovering from January's revised 11.4% tumble - the steepest fall since April 2020. Orders grew for manufacturing electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and the chemical industry, while new orders contracted for automotive and manufacturing metal products.

The number of layoff announcements in the US continued to rise in March, the results of a survey revealed. According to consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of announcements increased by 7% versus February to reach 90,039.

Economic activity in the eurozone's private sector expanded for the first time in ten months in March, according to revised figures released by Hamburg Commercial Bank (HCOB) on Thursday. The second estimate of the closely watched eurozone composite purchasing managers' index (PMI), which measures conditions across both the manufacturing and services sectors, was lifted to 50.3 for last month, up from the initial reading of 49.9 and ahead of the February level of 49.2.

Activity levels in US services failed to pick up last month as anticipated by economists, the results of a closely-followed survey showed. The Institute for Supply Management's services sector Purchasing Managers' Index dipped to 51.4 for March after a reading of 52.6 in February. Economists had forecast that the headline PMI would tick higher to 52.7.

Private sector employment in the US rose more than expected in March, according to figures released on Wednesday by the ADP. Employment increased by 184,000 from February, versus expectations for a 148,000 jump. Meanwhile, February’s gain was revised from 140,000 to 155,000. Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees added 16,000 jobs, while medium businesses with 50 to 599 employees added 93,000.

Inflation in the eurozone unexpectedly slowed in March, with the core rate dropping to its lowest in more than two years, as price pressures in the single-currency region continue to ease. The year-on-year change in the eurozone's harmonised consumer price index fell to 2.4% last month, from 2.6% in February, according to Eurostat, surprising economists who had pencilled in no change.

Activity in China’s services sector grew as expected in March, according to figures released on Wednesday. The Caixin services PMI ticked up to 52.7 from 52.5 in February, in line with expectations. A reading above 50.0 signals expansion, while a reading below indicates contraction.

The number of job openings in the US was little changed in February from the month before, reflecting no further easing yet in the jobs market. According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms the number of job openings increased by a scant 0.1% month-on-month to reach 8.756m.

Reporting by Sharecast.com staff and contributors.