Latest News
WYG awarded three contracts in UK, Africa
Global project management and technical consultancy WYG announced on Friday that it was recently awarded two major new framework contracts with UK government agencies, and a significant new contract in Africa in its international development market.
Fashion store sales drag down high street sales - BDO
Like-for-like retail sales on Britain's high streets were down 1. 3% in May, according to a survey published on Friday.
US, Brazil and North Sea 'benefitting most' from Opec cuts
A possible new trend of oil being supplied to Asia from the US, Brazil and the North Sea has been identified, as the Opec production cuts alters global oil flows.
Inmarsat dashes takeover rumours with contract announcements
Dashing hopes of takeover talks that had emerged earlier in the week, Inmarsat published two announcements on Friday, but these were to reveal two new satellite contracts.
UK construction activity surprisingly surges to 17-month high
UK construction activity improved much more than expected in May, according a Markit survey published on Friday.
B&M European shares fall as Arora family sells major stake
B&M European Value Retail chief executive Simon Arora's family investment vehicle and a private equity backer have together offloaded £454. 3m worth of shares in the discount chain.
Metro Bank buys mortgage portfolio from Cerberus
Metro Bank has completed the purchase of a portfolio of UK mortgages from Cerberus European Residential Holdings for £596. 7m.
Amec Foster Wheeler wins revamp contract with BP in Spain
Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management contract by BP Oil España to revamp the vacuum distillation unit at the Castellón refinery.
London open: FTSE edges towards record ahead of construction data, payrolls
London's FTSE 100 was edging towards the 7,600 mark early on Friday, taking its cue from a positive US session as investors waited the release of UK construction data and the all-important non-farm payrolls report.
Plus500 surges on share buyback announcement
Online trading platform provider Plus500 surged on Friday after it announced a share buyback and said current trading has continued the positive trends outlined in the first quarter update back in April.
Europe open: Stocks jump out of the gate, tracking gains on Wall Street
European stocks have begun the session with a sharp move higher, tracking the fresh record highs notched up overnight by the main Wall Street gauges.
Credit Suisse ups Kaz Minerals to 'outperform'
Kaz Minerals got a boost on Friday as Credit Suisse upgraded its stance on the stock to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’ and hiked the target price to 630p from 370p.
Whitbread hit by Goldman Sachs downgrade
Premier Inn and Costa owner Whitbread was under the cosh on Friday after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to ‘sell’ from ‘neutral’ and cut the price target to 3,900p from 4,000p.
GSK's ViiV submits transatlantic HIV drug applications
GlaxoSmithKline and its global specialist HIV company ViiV Healthcare, which it owns with Pfizer and Shionogi as shareholders, announced regulatory submissions to the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration on Friday, for a single-tablet, two-drug regimen of dolutegravir and rilpivirine, for the maintenance treatment of HIV-1 infection.
GSK investment submits transatlantic drug applications, Inmatsat forges two new satellite contracts
London open.
Friday newspaper round-up: Tax evasion, M&S, BoE
The richest 0. 01% of households, involving those with more than £31m assets, evade paying 30% of their taxes on average, according to an academic study of tax evasion based on data revealed in the Panama Papers and the leaks concerning the HSBC Swiss private bank. Economists, who matched people named in the leaks with public wealth records, found that “the probability to hide assets rises very sharply with wealth”. The paper found that the super-rich evaded more than 10 times as much of their due taxes as the wider population, which on average evaded 2%.
London pre-open: Stocks seen higher ahead of payrolls
London stocks were set for a positive open on Friday, taking their cue from an upbeat session on Wall Street as investors eyed the release of the latest non-farm payrolls report.
US close: Equities tide rises as Trump disembarks from climate accord
As Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement the country's stock indices made like a rising sea level to set new record high water marks on the first day of June, boosted by a wave of data indicating the economy continues to head in the right direction.