Weekly review

The FTSE 100 finished the week down 20.3 points, or 0.27%, at 7,527.33 on Friday.

Equity view

Centrica announced on Friday that the CQ Energy Canada Partnership, the Canadian E&P joint venture in which it owned a 60% interest, was to be sold to a consortium comprising MIE Holdings Corporation, the Can-China Global Resource Fund and Mercuria for a purchase price of CAD 722m (£413m) in cash.

The long-running legal battle between animal genetics specialist Genus and US rival Sexing Technologies' owner Inguran rumbles on, with the UK company accused of infringing patents and breaching trade secrets.

Tritax Big Box has bought a distribution facility at Birch Coppice business park in Birmingham which is operated by Ocado and serves both Ocado's and Wm Morrison's online retail businesses, for £92.3m.

Investors have overreacted to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into Petrofac, reckoned analysts at Kepler Cheuvreux, initiating coverage with a 'buy' rating even though it predicted a maximum cash fine of £1.05bn.

Ultra Electronics said its US-based Ocean Systems business had won a $10m (£7.72m) contract from the UK Ministry of Defence for the production of two variants of its submarine countermeasure acoustic device (SCAD) for the Royal Navy's submarine fleet.

Workspace Group confirmed it was in talks to buy London's Salisbury House at 28-31 Finsbury Circus, EC2 but warned there could be “no certainty” a deal would take place.

Petrofac announced on Thursday that it secured a long-term framework agreement with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) for the provision of engineering, procurement and construction management (EP+Cm) support services for major oil and gas projects.

Regional airline Flybe said it swung to a loss in the year to the end of March, as capacity grew while growth in consumer demand slowed.

Anglo American announced the appointment of Stuart Chambers as its chairman on Wednesday.

AstraZeneca announced on Wednesday that it entered an agreement with Grünenthal for the global rights to Zomig (zolmitriptan) outside Japan.

Amec Foster Wheeler has been appointed by the UK government's Crown Commercial Services to its £2. 9bn project management and full design services framework.

Investors in global advertising agency M&C Saatchi were gathering on Wednesday for the company’s annual general meeting, with chairman Jeremy Sinclair set to update them on current trading, saying 2017 had started “well” and remained in line with expectations.

Online electrical retailer AO World saw full year pre-tax losses widened to £7m from £6. 7m as it warned of a “significant” slowdown in UK first quarter growth.

Banknote producer De La Rue has announced the appointment of Bryan Gray as chief operating officer.

Temporary power specialist Aggreko announced on Tuesday that, after 13 years with the FTSE 250 business - three of which as chief financial officer - Carole Cran had tendered her resignation to enable her to take up a new role as CFO of Forth Ports, an infrastructure funds-owned company headquartered in Scotland.

Rio Tinto said its offer to buy back $781m in US denominated notes due between 2021 – 2025 had been oversubscribed.

Vodafone and LG UPlus have announced a new partner market agreement for South Korea where the former will share best practices with LG UPlus across all areas of their business, including network strategy and development.

Polymetal International said it had extended its existing $400m credit facility with Sberbank for seven years.

Royal Mail has agreed to sell two of the seven plots on the site of its former south London mail centre at Nine Elms site to US-based developer Greystar for £101m cash, which has appointed AIM-listed Telford Homes to deliver 894 build-to-rent homes.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it was ending its probe into PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) auditing of Tesco's accounts.

Economic news

UK Prime Minister Theresa May was forced into a governing alliance with the Democratic Unionist Party on Friday after her gamble to crush Labour and deliver a hard Brexit backfired spectacularly when government lost its parliamentary majority.

Some big names lost their seats as members of parliament as a shock UK election result unfurled on Friday morning, including former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and several Conservative ministers.

The result of the General Election of 2017 will not have an immediate impact on the UK's long-term credit ratings, Standard&Poor's said.

After Theresa May's decision to call a snap election backfired with the Conservatives losing their parliamentary majority, the increased political uncertainty is likely to push back a first Bank of England interest rate hike to the first half of 2020, economists and strategists in the City said on Friday.

Another survey emerged on Thursday to suggest UK house prices are softening, with buying enquiries hitting an 11-month low to counter more bullish housing earlier in the week.

The FTSE 100 was weaker at the close on Thursday as the UK voted in the snap election called by PM Theresa May, and traders worked their way through a full platter of US and European news on so-called 'blockbuster' Thursday.

UK house prices held up better than expected last month although the year-on-year rate of price gains continued to cool.

UK retail sales decreased slightly in May, as a six-year low in non-food sales offset a strong month for supermarkets.

Activity in the UK services sector slowed more than expected in May, according to the latest survey from IHS Markit and CIPS.

UK car sales tanked in May and while the industry expects overall sales to remain strong over 2017 as a whole, some experts disagree.

International events

The president of the regional government of Catalonia said he will call for an independence referendum on 1 October.

Consumer price gains in China accelerated during the month of May but economists warned that the underlying pressures were pointing in the opposite direction.#

Foreign demand for Chinese exports held up better than expected last month as did domestic appetite for wares from abroad, although some economists believed strength in imports was unlikely to be sustained.

Rate-setters at the European Central Bank are more confident that inflation is headed back towards their targetted level.

The single currency weakened on Wednesday after Bloomberg reported that the European Central Bank might be set to lower its short and medium-term forecasts for inflation in the Eurozone.

US President Donald Trump has said he will nominate former Department of Justice official Christopher Wray as the new director of the FBI.

Retail sales in the eurozone rose a little less than expected in April, according to data released by Eurostat.

France's new centrist party may win the upcoming legislative elections by the widest margin since Charles de Gaulle's landslide victory in 1968.

Business activity in the eurozone was steady in May, according to data released on Monday.

Qatar's stock market suffered its largest fall in almost a decade on Monday after Saudi Arabia led other Gulf states including United Arab Emirates and Egypt in cutting diplomatic ties, purportedly over protecting themselves from "terrorism and extremism".