ICAP wins deal in China; Savills takes stake in hybrid estate agency

Stocks to watch

Markets operator and provider of post-trade risk mitigation and information services ICAP announced on Friday that China Foreign Exchange Trade System has chosen it to deliver the underlying technology for fixed income and foreign exchange electronic execution services in mainland China.

The FTSE 250 firm said CFETS - China’s official interbank market trading platform and infrastructure provider - has been planning its so-called Next-Generation Trading System for a number of years.

It said ICAP was chosen to cooperate with CFETS on the core trading components of the system, which will enhance its capability to offer central limit order book and disclosed trading models for FX spot, forwards and swaps and a disclosed trading model for cash bonds to the onshore renminbi market, through a localised EBS BrokerTec graphical user interface.

The deal, valued at $65m over a three-year period, will be delivered by ICAP division EBS BrokerTec, and will see the company expand into China with EBS opening a local office and development centre in Shanghai.

International real estate advisory firm Savills announced a fresh investment on Friday, confirming that is proprietary investment subsidiary Grosvenor Hill Ventures has taken a minority stake in YOPA Property, by participating in its £16m equity fundraising.

The FTSE 250 firm said YOPA’s fundraising was to fund the rollout of its “online hybrid estate agency” in the high-volume segment of the UK market.

It said YOPA was founded in 2014 and has since developed its technology-led business model, which was launched in hybrid form in January 2016.

In the press

Media companies publishing to Facebook are reaching 42 per cent fewer people with each story since January, a new report claims, putting pressure on the social network to explain how it has changed its algorithm. Stories posted to Facebook reached an average of 68,000 users in May, down from about 117,000 in January, according to SocialFlow, a platform used by publishers to post half a million stories to Facebook and other social media sites each month. – Financial Times

Economists campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union have accused the Treasury and international institutions of “groupthink” in a report that says growth would be boosted if all trade barriers were removed after a leave vote in this month’s referendum. The group Economists for Brexit (EfB) said consumers and businesses would benefit from lower prices once EU-imposed tariffs were removed and dismissed predictions that the UK would be plunged into immediate recession if the remain campaign lost on 23 June. – Guardian

Tata Steel is close to reaching a deal to keep its Port Talbot plant open after being offered a sweetener by the government. The Indian company was last night discussing the offer of a huge loan after an apparent change of heart by ministers anxious to avoid thousands of British job losses. – The Times

US close

US stocks ended in the black, reversing earlier losses as oil prices recovered, although gains were limited as investors looked to the non-farm payrolls report on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closed up 0.3%, while the Nasdaq rose 0.4%.

At the same time, oil prices recovered from declines earlier in the session after the meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna failed to yield any new agreement on oil production. Expectations had been low going into the meeting.