Weekly review

The FTSE 100 finished the week 281.93 points higher at 7,022.51.

Equity view

Shares in Vedanta Resources spiked on Friday, recovering from morning lows to trade 20% higher as the company's Indian business Cairn India said it would fight against a $3.3bn tax charge.

Standard Chartered's rating was downgraded on Friday to 'sell' from 'hold' by analysts at Investec Securities, as the scale and pace of the stock's absolute and relative share price recovery "finally tipped...[the broker]... over the edge."

Moody's downgraded the issuer rating and senior unsecured ratings of British Gas owner Centrica from Baa1 from A3.

Exploration outfit Tullow Oil was granted access to increased financing to support its activities on more secure terms from lenders.

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair abandoned plans for a transatlantic airline.

TSB agreed to be acquired by Banco Sabadell in a transaction valued at £1.7bn.

Citigroup and Barclays will reportedly settle a lawsuit with private investors, who claim that the banks manipulated foreign-exchange rates within the week.

Ladbrokes appointed a new chief executive in the shape of its current online chief Jim Mullen, who will take over from incumbent Richard Glynn on 1 April.

Supermarket group Tesco swapped ownership of a number of stores and retail parks with commercial real estate giant British Land in a deal worth £733m.

Royal Dutch Shell sold off a portion of its upstream assets in Nigeria for $737m cash to local operator Eroton Exploration & Production.

Vodafone reportedly reached a preliminary agreement to buy a stake in Italian fibre-optic operator Metroweb Italia SpA from investor F2i Sgr SpA.

Auto Trader Group, the UK car classified company, priced 590m shares at 235p/share in its initial public offering in the London market on Thursday.

Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk completed its refinancing and reiterated its confidence in meeting 2015 production guidance.

In 2014, oil and gas exploration outfit Ophir Energy saw a sharp rise in profitability as it completed the sale of various exploration blocks off-shore Tanzania.

British clothing retailer Next reported 2014 pretax profits up 7.2%, which is at the top end of its range, as the group benefited from improving consumer confidence.

Chip designer ARM Holdings's market share in servers may reach 20% by 2020, versus less than 1% at present, the company reportedly said

Shares in UK listed pub landlords, brewers and beverage companies all added gains on Wednesday after UK chancellor George Osborne decided to cut duty on beer by 1p for the third successive time in his budget.

First-half profits at engineer Smiths Group stumbled on the hurdles of foreign currency and the lower oil price, but the company expects things to pick up in the second half.

Technology transfer and investment group Imperial Innovations said its portfolio company Cell Medica received an orphan drug designation by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Dragon Oil has confirmed that it has been approached by Emirates National Oil Company in an offer for the remaining share capital of the company.

Trinity Mirror confirmed it is in preliminary talks to snap up rival newspaper the Daily Express in a sign of further consolidation in the newspaper market.

Quindell confirmed speculation that it is in talks with Slater & Gordon regarding a possible takeover from the Australian law firm for its legal services business, but denied an offer had been made.

Results from Astrazeneca's much-anticipated Pegasus study of its Brilinta treatment found that the drug could extend patients' lives following a heart attack, though it did carry risks of increased bleeding.

Economic news

The latest survey by YouGov on Thursday showed a slight Labour lead in the wake of Chancellor George Osborne's Budget. Labour top the poll with 34% of votes, while the Tories are just behind them with 33%. Meanwhile, UKIP hold 14% of the vote, the Liberal Democrats 8% and the Green Party 6%.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) cut its growth forecasts for the UK economy and the rest of the world on Wednesday, citing 'abnormally low inflation' as a threat together with the risk of relying too heavily on central bank policies, rather than implementing domestic structural reforms.

Chancellor George Osborne on Wednesday delivered the 2015 UK Budget which included tax cuts for the North Sea oil and gas industry and an increase in the rate of the bank levy.

The unemployment rate in Britain remained stuck at 5.7% over the three months to January, while earnings growth slowed, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), sending the pound immediately lower.

The Bank of England (BoE) voted unanimously to maintain interest rates at 0.5% and its asset purchase programme at £375bn, minutes of the central bank's 4-5 March meeting revealed.

Germany, France and Italy followed in Britain's footsteps on Tuesday, by pledging to join a new China-led Asian investment bank.

A failure to resolve Greece's dire situation could lead investors to reappraise risks, leading to a correction in capital markets, a Bank of England policymaker said on Tuesday.

The average asking price for homes in England and Wales climbed 1% in the month to 7 March, registering its smallest gain for the time of the year since 2012.

There is now a greater risk of episodes of sharply increased volatility and market stress as a result of changes in market structures, a leading policymaker warned on Friday.

International events

Receding fears over a 'Grexit' from the Eurozone pushed the Greece's borrowing costs lower and the euro currency higher as the country's new government agreed to accelerate economic reform plans.

Switzerland's central bank stayed put on policies on Thursday but opened the door for intervention by saying the country's currency is still significantly overvalued

Tensions between US and Persian Gulf airlines heated up with a war of words exchanged by top executives at carriers from both sides of the world over unfair business practices.

General Motors has announced plans to mothball one its auto manufacturing plants in Russia on account of plummeting sales.

Holcim and Lafarge ironed out fresh terms over their proposed €41bn merger, which would create the world's biggest cement company.

Norway's Statoil bagged 14 offshore oil and gas exploration leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

Market chatter surfaced regarding a possible bid for Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, owned by publishing group RCS.

US real estate investment trust Macerich rejected a $16bn takeover proposal from rival Simon Property Group, saying the unsolicited bid substantially undervalues the company.

Six major banks are joining ICE's new gold price benchmarking process in London that is due to start on Friday, the exchange said on Thursday.