Weekly review

The FTSE 100 end the week up 145.06 points to 7,044.39.

Equity view

FTSE 250 listed property investment trust Workspace Group has been granted planning permission for the Mare Street Studios redevelopment in north east London.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca agreed to divest rights outside the US of its nasal spray to Johnson & Johnson affiliate CilagGmbH International for $330m in order to concentrate on respiratory treatments.

Vodafone announced on Friday that its subsidiary, Vodafone India, has acquired spectrum in all its key telecom circles in the latest spectrum auction for a total cost of INR 202. 8bn.

BAE Systems reiterated its confidence about hitting full year targets and gave encouraging platitudes about ongoing long-term contracts, including the government's politically sensitive talks about the next defence export contract with Saudi Arabia.

Only a week after being encouraged to step down, big data software company WANdisco has re-appointed ex-chief executive David Richards and so lost chairman Paul Walker, who has resigned.

Homeware retailer Dunelm’s first quarter revenue fell due to the unseasonably warm weather.

TalkTalk has been fined a record £400,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office for failings over a cyber attack last year that affected more than 150,000 of its customers.

Centamin announced preliminary production results for the quarter to 30 September from its Sukari Gold Mine in Egypt on Wednesday, with preliminary total gold production of 148,674 ounces, a 6% increase on the previous quarter and a 41% increase year-on-year.

BHP Billiton briefed investors in London on Tuesday, outlining what it called a “broad range of opportunities” within its petroleum business to grow value, returns and cash flow as markets improve

Private equity investment company 3i Infrastructure has invested €6.5m in a motorway project in the Netherlands, the company’s third investment in Dutch roads.

In a pre-close trading update for the 52-week period ending 1 October, tile specialist Topps Tiles reported a slowdown in sales as it took a slight hit from its decision to exit the wood flooring business.

Tesco reported much improved sales and operating profits in the first half of the year and set out ambitious plans for growing profit margins, though its pension deficit soared to a whopping £6bn.

Aviva has been fined £8. 25m by the UK financial regulator for failures around its arrangements to protect client assets outsourced to other providers.

Airline group IAG released its group traffic and capacity statistics for September on Wednesday, with traffic - as measured in revenue passenger kilometres - up 4. 8% year-on-year, while capacity in available seat kilometres rose by 5. 6%.

Bakery retail chain Greggs posted its third quarter trading update on Tuesday morning, with total sales up 5. 6% for the 13 weeks to 1 October and like-for-like sales up 3. 4%.

Central and Eastern Europe-focused low-cost airline Wizz Air reported a rise in passenger numbers and load factor in September.

Fastjet, an African based low-cost airline, has entered into a binding sale agreement of its solely-owned Airbus A319 with Avtrade.

For the first time since 2010, the US state of Massachussetts has given National Grid the 'green light' to raise its prices for 1.3m electricity distribution customers.

Henderson Group has agreed a $6bn "merger of equals" with New York-listed fund management peer Janus Capital, with a proposal to cancel the FTSE 250 company's London listing.

Economic news

The Bank of England will subject Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Standard Chartered to a two-part stress test in 2017.

An unseasonably warm September affected fashion sales as high street retailers recorded the second worst figures for the year so far, according to business and accountancy advisory firm BDO.

Adding to the woes of prospective first time buyers, the Office for National Statistics found that average house prices in England and Wales increased to over six times the average salary last year.

Britain's shortfall in its trade with the rest of the world worsened in August amid a jump of purchases of goods from abroad.

UK industrial production unexpectedly declined in August, while manufacturing production rose less than expected, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

UK house price growth eased in the three months to September, adding to signs the housing market is slowing after the EU referendum in June, according to Halifax on Friday.

The sterling plunged during Asian trading hours, mimicking the volatility seen in the South African rand and New Zealand dollar at the start of the year, with traders possibly trying to front-run further weakness, especially as Westminster and the European Union staked out their initial bargaining positions.

The final Markit/CIPS UK services purchasing managers’ index fell to 52.6 from 52.9 in August, which was better than the 52.0 reading economists had been expecting and above the 50 mark that separates contraction from expansion.

The International Monetary Fund has predicted the UK will be the fastest growing of the G7 country this year, backtracking on its prediction that Brexit will lead to a financial crisis.

With rising house prices making home ownership increasingly out of reach, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) predict that there will be 1.8m more households looking to rent by 2025.

The Markit/CIPS UK construction purchasing managers’ index rose to 52.3 from 49.2 in August, above the 50 mark that separates contraction from expansion for the first time in four months.

The UK will start formal negotiations to leave the European Union no later than the first quarter of 2017, the Prime Minister said.

International events

The European Central Bank had not yet considered tapering its monthly bond purchases, President Mario Draghi said.

US job growth slowed to a pace of 156,000 in September, according to the US Department of Labor.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, according to data released by the Labor Department.

Gasoline stockpiles in the US registered an unexpected drop in the latest week, pressuring crude oil futures higher.

US factory orders grew by 0.2% month-on-month in August to reach $453.1bn, according to the Department of Commerce.

The US trade deficit edged higher in August as the surplus in America's trade in services with the rest of the world shrank.

Markit’s final US services purchasing managers’ index rose to 52. 3 in September, up from 51. 0 in August and the flash estimate of 51.9.

Retail sales in the 19 countries that share the euro fell less than expected in August, according to the latest figures from Eurostat.

The International monetary Fund (IMF) marked down its forecast for the United States this year to 1. 6%, from 2. 2% in July, due to rise in political uncertainty in the lead up to the November election.