Weekly Review

The FTSE 100 index finished down 178.65 points on the week at 6,339.97.

Equity view

Mining giant BHP Billiton sees continued "healthy demand growth" in the iron ore market, but has announced plans to slash costs at its Western Australian Iron Ore (WAIO) unit as supply growth exceeds the increase in demand.

The boss of catering group Compass and the former chief of Swedish furniture giant IKEA are to join the board of Tesco, as the UK supermarket attempts to rebuild shareholder confidence after a string of profit warnings and an accounting scandal.

Jimmy Choo’s planned initial public offering in London is reportedly set to reach a value of up to $1.1bn.

Rio Tinto revealed that it had turned down the advances of Glencore after an approach from the mining and commodities giant in the summer.

Precious metals group Lonmin has returned to full production earlier than expected following a lengthy strike by workers earlier in the year.

While interim results were in line with reduced expectations, clothing retailer N Brown lowered guidance for full-year profits after the second half started weakly due to mild weather.

Economic news

UK new car registrations rose by 5.6% in September compared with the same month a year ago, the Society of Manufacturers and Traders revealed. Sales reached 425,861, marking the best September since 2004.

The Bank of England's credit conditions survey has found that lenders expect mortgage lending to rebound substantially in the fourth quarter, after a large dip in the third.

UK industrial production was flat on the month in August, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in line with estimates.

The UK economy grew by 0.7% in the third quarter after 0.8% in the previous three months, according to estimates from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

Shop prices suffered their 17th consecutive drop in September, with food inflation remaining at its record low of 0.3% year-on-year, the British Retail Consortium said.

The Bank of England voted to keep interest rates at their record-low level of 0.5% and the asset purchase programme at £375bn.

UK construction output tumbled 3.9% in August against July, further stoking fears that the economic recovery is losing steam.

The UK trade deficit narrowed in August to £1.9bn, compared to a £3.1bn deficit in July, driven by a drop in imports from non-European Union countries.

International events

US tech giant Hewlett Packard has confirmed its intention to split up into two publicly-listed business units.

Samsung has announced that it will spend $15bn building a chip plant in South Korea. It also said that third-quarter operating profits plummeted 60% to $3.8bn amid intensified smartphone competition.

German factory orders in August registered their largest decline since 2009, falling 5.7% over the month, more than twice the drop expected. German industrial production was also weak, falling a worse-than-expected 4%.

Eurozone investor confidence tumbled to its lowest level since May 2013, according to a Sentix research institute survey.

The global Ebola crisis intensified this week after cases of the virus were reported in the US, Spain, Australia and Turkey. Jim Kim, the head of the World Bank, said that the international community has "failed miserably" in its response to the disease, which has now killed over 3,800 people in west Africa.

The International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecast for this year and next. The IMF now expects world growth to come in at 3.3% in 2014, down 0.1% from its July forecast. In 2015 the organisation predicts growth of 3.8%, down 0.2% from earlier expectations.

Portugal's Espirito Santo Financial Group is to file for bankruptcy.

Minutes of the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting eased concerns about an early rate hike. Policymakers expressed fears about how a slowdown in global growth and a stronger dollar could affect the US economy, as they maintained their forward guidance to keep interest rates low for a "considerable time".

US aluminium producer Alcoa unofficially kicked off corporate earnings season with a bang, reporting a tripling of third-quarter profits on the back of higher prices and demand.

Jobless claims in the States declined unexpectedly last week and remained below the 300,000 mark for the fourth week in a row. The moving average fell to its lowest since February 2006.