Weekly Review

Weekly Review

The FTSE 100 closed down 84.75 points on the week at 6,985.95.

Equity view

British Gas owner Centrica maintained its previous forecast issued in February as UK political risk and a rocky global commodities market continue to hound the company.

Costa Cofee and Premier Inn owner Whitbread served up impressive results for the year to 26 February but announced that chief executive Andy Harrison will retire by the end of the current financial year.

BP posted an underlying replacement cost profit decline of 20% on an annualised basis for the three months to end-March, though the figure beat forecasts and was 15% higher on the previous quarter.

Revenues from Standard Chartered fell more than expected in the first three months of the year as the Asia-focused bank faced challenging trading conditions and said its deleveraging measures hit performance.

A strong performance at its FTSE information services arm helped to boost revenues 86% at the London Stock Exchange at in the first quarter.

Chile-focused copper miner Antofagasta scaled back its production guidance for 2015 after first-quarter output was affected by numerous water issues at its Los Pelambres and Centinela projects.

Full-price sales at Next since the start of the year rose 3.2%, ahead of guidance from March thanks to new store openings and warmer weather.

Adjusted profits before tax at Barclays rose by 9% to £1.85bn over the first three months of the year.

International Consolidated Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways and Spain's Iberia, flew back into the black in the traditionally weak first quarter.

Royal Bank of Scotland made a £446m loss in the first quarter of the year, more than double what had been feared as it was hit by £453m of restructuring costs and set aside £856m for litigation and conduct charges.

Inflows at its asset management arm drove a double-digit gain in profits at fund manager Schroders in the first quarter.

Royal Dutch Shell saw unadjusted profits sink 56% in the first quarter on the back of depressed crude prices, though results were much better than analysts had feared.

Lloyds Banking Group delivered a bigger-than-expected jump in underlying profits in the first quarter as impairment charges more than halved, with the UK lender lifting its net interest margin guidance for the full year.

Economic news

UK gross domestic product expanded at a quarter-on-quarter pace of 0.3% in the three months ended in March, after an expansion of 0.6% in the last quarter of 2014. Economists had pencilled in a gain of 0.5%.

House prices in the UK rose for the first time in seven months in April, according to Nationwide, with economists predicting a steady rise in coming months. House prices rose 1% in April, which drove year-on-year growth up 5.2%.

According to figures released by the Bank of England, UK mortgage approvals fell from 61,523 to 61,341 in March, short of the expected increase to 62,500. Net mortgage lending was flat at £1.8bn, while consumer credit increased by £1.2bn.

The UK manufacturing sector recorded a drastic slowdown in March, a survey showed on Friday. Markit’s monthly PMI for manufacturing fell to 51.9 in April from 54 in March, the biggest decline since February 2013.

International Events

US equipment manufacturer Applied Materials and Japanese electronics and semiconductor company Tokyo Electron are to ditch their merger plan, both companies confirmed, citing concerns expressed by the US Department of Justice.

Apple posted a 33% increase in quarterly profits in the three months to March 28, as strong iPhone sales and colossal growth in Chinese trade continued to drive momentum from the release of the iPhone 6 in September.

Spanish banking giant Banco Santander said first-quarter profit rose over 30% on the back of Spain's economic recovery and the weakening euro.

Euro-area consumer prices registered zero growth in April compared to a year ago, as expected by analysts, according to an initial estimate from Eurostat. It marked an improvement from the previous month's 0.1% year-on-year decline.

Irish drug group Perrigo has rejected an improved $35.6bn takeover offer from US rival Mylan.

Twitter shares plunged 20% on Tuesday after hours, after the social media giant's first quarter results left investors disappointed. The social-media giant missed first quarter sales expectations and delivered a weak outlook for the second quarter and full year.

Norwegian oil giant Statoil has slipped into its third consecutive quarterly loss on an annualised basis, after taking a hefty $6.1bn impairment charge in the US.

Russia’s central bank lowered its key policy rate by more than had been anticipated by the markets. It was cut by 150 basis points to 12.5% from 14%.