Weekly review
The FTSE 100 ended the week down 140.46 points to 5,707.60.
Equity view
Housebuilder Cairn Homes has inked a deal with real estate group Hines Ireland to buy two sites on the Cherrywood site in Dublin for €215m (£167m).
Discounter Aldi has reacted to Morrisons’ recent ramping up of price competition with a wave of price reductions and a new advertising campaign.
Oil and gas companies Premier Oil and Rockhopper Exploration announced the termination of a joint venture drilling contract with Ocean Rig in the Falklands.
ESI Media, parent company of the Independent and Independent on Sunday, confirmed the closure of the print editions of the newspapers and fully switches focus to its websites.
The founder of SuperGroup – the company behind the popular Superdry fashion brand – has sold 4m shares due to “personal circumstances” amid reports he plans to use the proceeds to fund his divorce.
As well as dismissing the need for a rights issue, Rolls-Royce cut its final dividend by 50% to 71p and said it would be halved again at the next interim stage, though full year underlying profits did not fall as far as some feared.
Housebuilder and urban regeneration partner Countryside Properties listed on the stock market at 225p per share, which was at the lower end of its previously stated range and gives it a value of around £101bn.
Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on oil giant BP’s long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘Stable’ from ‘Positive’ and affirmed the IDR at 'A'.
One of Eden Research's long-term projects came to fruition on Thursday, with the company announcing its product - 3AEY - had received authorisation in Italy, and would be released to the market by the company's local partner.
Polish diners appeared to be swapping their pierogi for pizza in 2015, with DP Poland revealing some impressive numbers in a full-year trading update on Thursday.
Manchester United said on Thursday it expects revenue for fiscal 2016 to be between £500m and £510m as it announced record second quarter revenues.
HSBC reportedly made a U-turn on its planned 2016 pay freeze.
Shire beat fourth quarter sales forecasts and issued much stronger guidance for 2016, targeting double digit top-line growth and a 7%-10% increase in earnings before including the effect of its takeover of Baxalta.
Telecoms provider Cable & Wireless reported a rise in third quarter earnings and revenue, underpinned by cost synergies.
A more cautious outlook statement from Henderson Group sent shares in the company lower on Thursday despite annual earnings beating consensus forecasts.
Geopolitical uncertainty and the threat of terrorism were putting a dampener on some of Thomas Cook's operations in its first quarter, though the company appeared to have a handle on it, with solid volumes and increased prices on its winter holidays.
Water utility and waste management company Pennon Group said it was on track to meet management expectations for the year ending 31 March thanks to solid performances across its divisions.
Shares in Societe Generale tumbled on Thursday as the French bank reported a smaller-than-expected rise in fourth quarter net profit and warned that it might miss its profit target this year.
Specialist emerging markets asset manager Ashmore posted a drop in first half pre-tax profit as assets under management declined, with weak oil prices and worries about a slowdown in China denting investor sentiment.
Rio Tinto was insistent it was weathering the commodities storm in its full-year results on Thursday, but the numbers were telling a different story - with net earnings down almost £5bn.
Tate & Lyle remained stable in its third quarter, reporting increased trading volumes in some divisions, but lower margins and continuing difficulties in the ethanol market.
Economic news
Moody's changed its outlook for the European steel sector to negative as the sharp fall in steel prices weighs heavily on profitability such that it will take at least 18 months to return to levels close to those of 2014.
There is a relatively high chance that European Union heads of state can reach an agreement in time to call the UK referendum on continued EU membership by June, Morgan Stanley said on Friday, with good odds that that David Cameron's campaign for the "stay" vote will triumph.
The draft accord between the United Kingdom and the European Union on modifying the terms of Britain's membership ran into some opposition from France and a group of Eastern European nations on Wednesday.
Industrial production in the UK fell by more than economists were expecting, weighed down by output from the mining sector.
Britain's economy expanded at a slightly lower rate over the three months to January in comparison to the previous three-month stretch, according to one of the most influential think-tanks.
Citigroup reckons there is a 20-30% risk of ‘Brexit’, perhaps even as high as 30-40%, so while it’s not the bank’s base case, it is “by no means a trivial risk” it said.
The UK’s trade gap with the rest of the world widened in the fourth quarter, data from the Office for National Statistics showed on Tuesday.
Crude oil prices might head lower over the next few months as Iraq and Iran boost their output even in the face of slower growth in demand and offset decreased supplies from outside the cartel of oil producing nations, the rich world’s oil watchdog said on Tuesday.
Goldman Sachs repeated its warning that crude oil futures might fall below $20 per barrel in 2016.
International events
China's foreign currency reserves fell by $995bn in January, according to data released by the People's Bank of China.
Deutsche Bank announced plans for a €44bn (£34) emergency debt buyback of euro- and dollar-denominated debt, after worries about the giant German lender's finances undermined wider sector and market confidence for much of the week.
The chairman and chief executive of one of New York's largest banks spent an entire year's worth of pay buying back shares of his own company on Thursday.
The Bank of Japan reportedly intervened for a second time this week on Thursday afternoon in a bid to weaken its currency.
US retail sales rose more than expected in January, according to data from the Commerce Department.
Eurozone GDP grew 0.3% in the fourth quarter, in line with the previous quarter and economists' forecasts, according to a flash estimate from Eurostat.
Sweden's central bank trimmed its main policy interest rate on Thursday by more than had been expected, brushing aside worries of a housing market bubble and strong domestic demand in the economy.
The US Federal Reserve’s Senior Loan Officer Survey, published last week, made for grim reading, but so far the money and credit data from the four major advanced economies did not support the view that the world was on the brink of a broad-based downturn, Capital Economics said.
The Irish Treasury got off €10bn in 10-year debt at a record low yield on Thursday in the face of election uncertainty, amid a recent sharp increase in demand for those sovereign bonds deemed safest by investors.