Petrofac trading in line with guidance, Energean signs deal with Israel Natural Gas Lines
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 22 points lower on Tuesday, having closed up 0.12% at 7,416.69 on Monday.
Stocks to watch
Oil services company Petrofac said trading was in line with previous guidance with new order intake of $1.7bn in the year to date. Net debt was expected to be around $100m at June 30, compared with $90m at the end of 2018.
Energean Oil and Gas has signed a detailed agreement with Israel Natural Gas Lines (INGL) for the transfer of title of the near-shore and onshore part of the infrastructure that will deliver gas from the Karish and Tanin floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facilities into the Israeli national gas transmission grid, it announced on Tuesday. The FTSE 250 firm said that as consideration, INGL would pay Energean 369 million Israeli new shekels ($102m), which would be paid in accordance with milestones detailed in the agreement.
Renishaw confirmed that group engineering director Geoff McFarland, a veteran of more than two decades at the engineering firm, will resign as a director of the board with effect from 30 June due to family reasons. McFarland will remain at Renishaw, taking on a part time role as director of group technology.
Newspaper round-up
Britain’s foremost tax and spending think tank has said that Boris Johnson’s promise to cut taxes for millions of higher earners would cost £9bn and benefit the richest 10% of households in Britain most. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the proposal by the frontrunner in the Conservative leadership race was expensive and potentially incompatible with the Tories’ promise to end austerity and safely manage the public finances. – Guardian
Digital bank Monzo has doubled its value to £2bn after closing a fresh round of investor funding. The valuation of the London-based bank leaped as it confirmed it had raised £113m from a group of investors led by Y Combinator, a US-based investment firm best known for backing holiday letting platform Airbnb, file hosting service Dropbox and online forum Reddit. – Guardian
FirstGroup will today face the music in an existential dust-up with its biggest shareholder. Coast Capital Management, a noisy Wall Street hedge fund, will have its plans to oust half of First's board put to the vote at an investor meeting. The ballot comes after a corporate ding-dong that could have been lifted from a Jeffrey Archer novel. In one corner, a British transport institution led by Matthew Gregory and Wolfhart Hauser; in the other, a Wall Street hedge fund run by charismatic Canadian James Rasteh. – Telegraph
When Andrew Bailey walks into the Wilson Room in Westminster’s Portcullis House this morning, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority will be braced for a rough ride. Mr Bailey, 60, and Charles Randell, 61, chairman of the City regulator, will update MPs on the work of the FCA in the second of their biannual hearings with the Treasury committee. But the conversation will not be one-way and Nicky Morgan, the Conservative chairwoman of the committee, has indicated that she will be asking both men tough questions. – The Times
A Labour government would hand the Bank of England climate change powers and would delist companies from the main London market if they failed to hit environmental targets, the shadow chancellor has said. John McDonnell said in a speech yesterday that Labour would harness “the full might of the Treasury” to force financial institutions to stop investing in polluting assets. Commercial and investment banks as well as pension fund and hedge funds would be scrutinised over contributions to climate change. – The Times
US close
Wall Street stocks closed with some mixed results on the first day of trading this week as geopolitical tensions remained firmly in focus.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.03% at 26,727.54, while the S&P 500 was trading 0.17% softer at 2,945.35 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.32% weaker at 8,005.70.
The Dow closed just 8.4 points higher on Monday after finishing slightly lower at the end of the previous week, despite a flurry of 'dovish' remarks from top US central bank officials.
Market participants kept a close eye on remarks out of Washington and Beijing ahead of an expected meeting between the US and Chinese Presidents on the margins of this week's G-20 leaders' summit in Japan.
Over the weekend, Chinese officials said the Asian nation wanted Washington to stop "inappropriate" action against Chinese firms.
Investors were also heavily focused on geopolitics and the escalating tensions between Iran and the US after Donald Trump revealed over the weekend that the US would impose "major" additional sanctions on Iran on Monday but Iran dismissed the threat as "just propaganda".