Weekly Review

The FTSE 100 closed the week up 20.08 points at 6,873.52.

Equity view

Annual profits fell 17% at Randgold Resources, as the gold price softened further in the fourth quarter, but the West Africa-focused gold miner has increased the final dividend 20% and made noises about the potential for "transformational" corporate activity.

TUI Group, the holiday giant formed when London's Tui Travel merged with its German sister company in December, has sailed off to an encouraging start to 2015 buoyed by a "significant" increase in profitability in ocean cruises, hotels and resorts.

Sky and BT have paid a whopping £5.13bn to win the rights to broadcast Premier League matches in the UK from the 2016-17 to the 2018-19 season, paying much more than their current contracts.

Commodities trader and mining giant Glencore has scaled back its planned capital expenditure budget for 2015 by as much as 18% and announced plans to sell off its 23.9% stake in South African platinum miner Lonmin.

Challenging conditions across the oil industry have pushed Tullow Oil to suspend its final dividend for 2014, as the exploration and production company swung to a loss of over $2bn on the back of hefty impairment charges and exploration write-offs.

In the first results after offloading its drugs business, Reckitt Benckiser delivered fourth-quarter net revenue growth comfortably ahead of forecasts and said it expected "moderate to nice" margins for 2015 despite its new Supercharge cost-saving project.

Chip designer ARM Holdings enjoyed a strong finish to 2014 with its best-ever quarterly revenues as a record number of licences were signed, many by new customers, which would be expected to flow through to future royalty revenues.

Mining group Rio Tinto pledged to return nearly $6bn to shareholders in respect of 2014 after hiking its full-year dividend by 12% and announcing a $2bn share buyback.

Drugmaker Shire posted fourth-quarter earnings of $2.63 per share, up 17% but just short of analysts’ expectations, while revenue rose 19% to $1.58bn, above consensus estimates.

The recent plunge in iron ore prices has prompted mining giant Anglo American to write-down the value of certain assets by $3.9bn, pushing the company into the red for the 2014 financial year.

Rolls-Royce reported an underlying revenue drop of 6% in its full-year results for 2014, caused by reduced defence-customer spending and falling commodity prices.

Strong performances from its growth brands in the first quarter helped offset declines elsewhere and left Imperial Tobacco confident of hitting its full year targets, though currency rates will hit earnings more than previously warned.

Afren has called off negotiations with Seplat Petroleum regarding a possible bid for the company.

Economic news

The UK economy will grow more than expected in the next two years thanks to the sharp fall in the oil price, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). UK GDP growth is expected to be 2.9% this year and 2.3% next year.

The NIESR also said that UK GDP grew 0.7% in the three months to January, up from 0.5% in the three months to December.

UK retail sales grew at a 1.6% year-on-year clip in January with food sales rising at their fastest rate in nearly a year, according to a British Retail Consortium sector survey.

House prices rose at their slowest rate since May 2013 in Britain last January, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. At the same time, prices in London weakened for the fifth consecutive month as the price balance fell to its lowest in six years.

International events

The cost of living in China registered a sharp drop in January, as volatile food prices fell back ahead of the country's Lunar New Year, prompting some economists to redouble their calls for further monetary easing out of Beijing this year. Chinese consumer price inflation fell to a 0.8% year-on-year pace last month, after a print of 1.5% in December.

Oilfield giant Halliburton said it will cut as much as 8% of its global 80,000 workforce, in the wake of the sustained decline in oil prices.

Apple shares closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, as the tech giant became the first US company to close with a market capitalisation of over $700bn.

Greece and Eurozone finance ministers failed to make much progress towards an agreement to extend the country's bailout programme on Wednesday night. Talks will continue on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that the country has reached a ceasefire agreement on the Ukraine crisis, scheduled to kick in on Sunday.

Shares in Kellogg's dropped on Wall Street on Thursday after the American cereal maker missed analysts' forecasts with its fourth-quarter results and lowered its long-term target for sales.

Online travel company Expedia has announced it will acquire sector peer Orbitz Worldwide for $1.38bn.

The Eurozone gross domestic product in the fourth quarter grew 0.3% from the previous three months, above consensus expectations of 0.2%.

Germany's economy grew 0.7% in the last quarter of 2014, well above analyst expectations that had called for a 0.3% expansion.

Steel giant ArcelorMittal said its annual profits for 2015 will be lower than in 2014, adding it had successfully managed to cut its debts to the lowest since 2006