Weekly review

Equity view

Imperial Tobacco has changed its name to Imperial Brands with immediate effect, following approval from shareholders at the annual general meeting earlier this week.

Spreadbetting firm CMC Markets has priced its London stock market listing at 240p a share, giving the group a market capitalisation of around £691m and at the lower end of the 235p-275p range.

Halma made a fresh foray into the United States on Friday, acquiring Pennsylvania-based CenTrak from private shareholders.

BG Group was doing all it could in 2015 to offset commodity price falls, it revealed in its final results on Friday, with revenue and earnings down significantly on the prior year.

Just Eat has ordered four online takeaway food businesses in Spain, Italy, Brazil and Mexico for a total of €125m (£94.7m)

Barclays has reportedly agreed to hand over internal documents to British prosecutors, a move that could end a drawn-out investigation into a 2008 fundraising involving Middle Eastern investors.

After a volatile fourth quarter, Old Mutual's asset management subsidiary posted solid core earnings for 2015, stated its confidence about withstanding the market challenges in 2016 and announced a buyback programme.

Despite Royal Dutch Shell posting an 80% drop in full year profit, the company's shares were up on Thursday as investors knew last month what was coming and are eyeing up continued dividends.

Legal & General's board was looking at losing a long serving member on Thursday, as Group Chief Financial Officer Mark Gregory announced his intention to retire on 31 January 2017.

Traffic at low cost airline Ryanair rose 25% in January to 748m, as the load factor, which gauges how many seats were taken up on flights, increased to 88% from 83%. Ryanair also posted a jump in third quarter profit as traffic grew strongly and the budget airline announced a €800m share buyback programme

Budget airline EasyJet’s passenger numbers rose 63% in January compared with the same month in 2015 to 428m.

As growth in North America remains strong and Europe improves, catering group Compass served up a sweet start to the year, with sales growth increasingly slightly and margins expectations for the 2016 maintained.

Vodafone was still looking to stabilise its operations in the third quarter of the year, posting some organic growth but reported contractions, with particular struggles in Europe.

Lloyds Banking Group has confirmed a net 1,585 roles in its retail, group operations, commercial banking, consumer finance, legal and finance teams will be axed as part of the 9,000 redundancies.

AstraZeneca has won European regulatory approval to market its Tagrisso-branded tablets for the treatment of adult patients with certain forms of lung cancer.

BP held its quarterly dividend at 10 cents a share as $26bn of write-downs and restructuring charges sent it crashing into losses for the fourth quarter and full year.

Sainsbury’s and Home Retail have come to an agreement over the terms of a deal that values the FTSE 250 retailer at about £13bn.

Ocado has posted double-digit revenue growth for the year, despite “challenging market conditions”.

BT Group’s third quarter revenues have risen 3%, leaving the company’s year-to-date revenues flat.

HSBC froze pay and hiring at its consumer and investment banking units as part of its plans to cut as much as $5bn from its cost base by the end of 2017, Bloomberg reported citing a spokesperson for the lender.

Premier Oil shares resumed trading on Monday as the terms of its deal to buy the UK North Sea assets of German power company EON were amended so that it no longer constitutes a reverse takeover.

Economic news

The January sales lured bargain hunters back to the High Street in January, according to figures released by accountancy and business advisory firm BDO. The BDO’s monthly High Street Sales Tracker saw 1.4% growth in year-on-year sales last month, with fashion sales particularly strong, up 1.9%.

The Bank of England voted unanimously to keep interest rates unchanged on Thursday amid low inflation and weak global growth.

UK car sales enjoyed their strongest January performance for 11 years, with new car registrations rising 2.9% in the month after what was already a record year in 2015, the SMMT revealed.

House prices rose by 17% in January compared to the previous month, according to seasonally adjusted data from Halifax, well ahead of market's expectations of a 1% increase.

The UK services sector unexpectedly grew in the first month of 2016, according to the Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers' index. The UK services sector PMI grew to 55.6 in January, up from 55.5 the month before and ahead of expectations of a fall to 55.4.

The UK construction sector experienced a slowdown at the start of the year, data released on Tuesday showed. The Markit/CIPS UK construction purchasing managers’ index for January fell to 55 from 57.8 in December.

UK manufacturing growth accelerated at the start of the year, figures released on Monday showed. The Markit/CIPS manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for January rose to 52.9 from 51.9 in December.

International events

US nonfarm payrolls rose less than expected in January, according to data from the Labor Department. US employers added 151,000 jobs, compared with consensus expectations for a 190,000 gain and a downwardly-revised 262,000 the previous month.The unemployment rate fell to 4.9% from 5% in December.

America´s trade deficit with the rest of the world increased slightly more than expected at the end of 2015 as exports of vehicles and parts slipped

US factory orders fell 2.9% in December, according to data released by the Commerce Department.

The number of first time unemployment benefits claimants in the US rose a little more than expected last week.

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi warned on Thursday that acting too late on low inflation was more risky than acting too early.

US crude oil inventories rose more than expected in the week ended 29 January, official data revealed on Wednesday, adding to concerns about the global supply glut.

The US private sector added more jobs than expected last month, data released on Wednesday showed.

The Eurozone unemployment rate fell to a seasonally-adjusted 104% in December, down from 105% in November and 114% the same month in 2014, data from Eurostat showed.

Manufacturing data in China provided mix readings on the state of the sector at the start of the year. The Caixin China manufacturing sector purchasing managers´ index, which better captures trends among smaller and medium-sized companies, rose from a reading of 48.2 for December to 48.4 in January (consensus: 48.1).