Weekly Review

The FTSE 100 finished the week up 43.25 points on the week at 6,753.70.

Equity view

Power generator hire firm Aggreko said it will restructure into two units and announced a raft of management changes.

Shares in Thorntons rocketed this week on news that Ferrero International will acquire the company for a 145p per share cash offer that values the fully-diluted capital of Thorntons at approximately £111.9m.

UK Financial Investments this week cut its stake in Lloyds Banking Group to below 17%.

International distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl said that revenue for the first half of 2015 is expected to have grown 6%, mainly to the positive impact of acquisitions.

Profits at cruise line operator Carnival almost tripled in its second quarter, courtesy of stronger-than-expected yields and a large drop in the company´s fuel costs.

Shares in Labdrokes surged this week after the company responded to recent press speculation and confirmed that it is in merger talks with the board of Gala Coral.

Equity, bond and derivatives markets operator London Stock Exchange Group said it continued to perform well in the second quarter with growth in the index business and increased activity in clearing operations.

Department store Debenhams said it was on track to meet full-year gross profit targets after gross transaction value growth of 1.7% over the first 41 weeks of the year.

Royal Bank of Scotland has appointed Leigh Bartlett as chief financial officer of Williams & Glyn, the company that is being created from the sale of around 300 RBS branches and other business banking elements.

Supermarket chain Tesco reported another slip in sales, but said the decline was slowing. UK like-for-like sales dropped by 1.3% in the 13 weeks to 30 May, an improvement on the last quarter’s drop of 1.7%.

Economic news

Factory orders in the UK grew at their weakest pace in almost two years in June, dented by a fall in export demand, according to the Confederation of British Industry’s monthly industrial trends survey.

Mortgage approvals in Britain rose to the highest level since March 2014 in May, according to data from the British Bankers' Association. Approvals for house purchases rose to 42,530 from 42,020 in April, a 4% increase year-on-year.you too

British car production rose in May, with volumes set to ramp up in coming years. Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders revealed 119,338 cars were built in May, up 2.3% versus the prior year month, as the output of vehicles for the home market jumped by 13.3%.

The UK population swelled by almost 0.5m last year to 64,596,800, according to the Office for National Statistics. 226,200 was added by 'natural growth', or births minus deaths, while a further 259,700 was added from net migration.

International events

A fifth Eurogroup meeting in nine days has been scheduled for Saturday morning as Greece attempts to secure the latest tranche of its bailout as it nears a 30 June deadline to repay €1.6bn to the IMF.

Post-it maker 3M said on Tuesday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy Capital Safety from private equity firm KKR for a total enterprise value of $2.5bn.

The final release of US gross domestic product showed a 0.2% contraction at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate, up from a previous estimate of 0.7% contraction, and in line with analysts’ expectations.

US health insurer Cigna's board of directors rebuffed a $47.5bn takeover offer from rival Anthem, saying in a letter they were “deeply disappointed” with the “inadequate” offer and with its competitor's actions.

Supermarket operators Delhaize and Ahold announced that they have agreed to merge, in a move that will create one of the biggest grocery operators in the US and Europe.

Shares in German potash producer K+S surged on Friday after the company confirmed that it had received a takeover proposal from Canadian rival Potash Corp.

US consumers splashed out in May at the fastest rate in almost six years, the latest set of government figures revealed. Personal income and spending increased by 0.5% and 0.9% month-on-month in May, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.