Weekly review
The FTSE 100 ended the week 108.42 points lower at 7,558.59.
Equity view
AIM-listed digital resilience group Shearwater said on Friday that it has agreed to buy cyber security solutions company Brookcourt Solutions for £30.3m, as it announced a placing of up to £30m and an open off of up to £1m to fund the deal and provide additional working capital.
Royal Bank of Scotland confirmed that chief financial officer Ewen Stevenson will step down from the board on 30 September, after he resigned in May.
TI Fluid Systems confirmed details around its interim dividend on Friday, reporting that it would be paid on 28 September to shareholders on the register on 17 August.
Motif Bio will present data on its investigational antibiotic Iclaprim at an upcoming conference on drug development in Lisbon, Portugal.
Oil services firm John Wood said it was selling its 50% stake in the Voreas wind farm joint venture in Italy for $27m ($21.2m) in cash.
Auto Trader Group has entered into an agreement to create a joint venture with Cox Automotive UK, it announced on Thursday, to provide a digital marketplace for wholesale vehicles in the UK.
Interim pre-tax profits at Landscape products group Marshalls rose 12% to £32.5m despite winter's “Beast from the East” storm hitting sales by £9m.
The UK takeover regulator has ruled that Disney could have to offer at least £14 a share to buy satellite broadcaster Sky.
GlaxoSmithKline has seen positive results from clinical trials of its once-monthly injectable treatment for HIV.
Europe-focused property investment company CLS Holdings said interim EPRA NAV increased 3.0% to 294.7p mainly through EPRA earnings and revaluation uplifts.
Generic drugmaker Hikma Pharmaceuticals issued its interim results for the six months ended 30 June on Wednesday, reporting an 11% improvement in group revenue to $989m, or 10% in constant currency.
Hochschild Mining said first-half pre-tax profit from continuing operations rose to $54.9m from $38.6m driven by record production at its Inmaculada mine and control over costs.
Builders merchant Grafton Group on Tuesday said it was raising €160m (£144m) through a private placing in the US.
Witan Investment Trust said its first half net asset was flat against the second half of 2017 as equity markets went “almost nowhere” during the term.
Plastic piping and ventilation systems manufacturer Polypipe Group issued its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June on Tuesday, reporting results in line with expectations, with revenue eking out gains of 0.1% year-on-year to £210.2m.
Ofcom has fined Royal Mail £50m for a "serious breach" of competition law, after a three-year investigation found the delivery company "abused its dominant position" in the business letters market.
A tough first quarter coupled with a weaker dollar contributed to a fall in interim profits at shipping services company Clarkson.
Shire and Shionogi have applied to expand the use in Japan of co-developed drug Intuniv to treat adults for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Online trading platform Plus500 reported a surge in first-half earnings on Monday as geopolitical events led to higher-than-expected market volatility, although it cautioned that the performance was unlikely to be repeated in the second half.
Brewin Dolphin has announced the appointment of Siobhan Boylan to the board as finance director.
Economic news
UK business secretary Greg Clark has warned that the European Commission risks causing “significant and lasting” economic harm to families across the continent if it does not accept Britain’s current Brexit deal.
Wealthier households have been the main beneficiaries of the government's Help to Buy subsidy scheme and purchasing homes, a new report has revealed.
Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling has no credible contingency plans for a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, road haulage firms have warned.
UK retail sales grew more than expected in July, boosted by the online segment, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics.
UK inflation ticked up slightly last month for the first time since November, official figures revealed on Wednesday, but the measure used to determine rail fare hikes came in lower than expected.
Land Registry figures revealed average UK house prices increased 3.0% for June, the lowest annual rate since August 2013.
House purchasing slowed in June, but remortgaging activity remained high, according to the latest figures from UK Finance.
Hardline Tory Brexiteers are to challenge Prime Minister Theresa May by publishing a positive blueprint for a no-deal Brexit and abandoning all support for May’s Chequers proposal, introduced last month.
UK shoppers continued to desert shopping centres and retail parks last month, though high streets enjoyed a third positive month in a row.
The UK high street crisis has cost the economy £1.5bn in lost GDP this year as 25,000 jobs have been cut in the first half of 2018 and a further 8,300 jobs are under threat, new analysis has found.
International events
Headline inflation in the eurozone rose to 2.1% year-over-year in July from 2.0% in June, according to the latest data from Eurostat.
China’s air force is "likely" training for bombing strikes against the US and its allies, according to a Pentagon report released on Thursday.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a new government bill forcing big corporations to dedicate more of their earnings to employees and other priorities rather than the recent trend to "making the rich even richer".
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week, according to figures from the Labor Department.
Indonesia's central bank surprised market watchers on Wednesday, hiking its main policy rate unexpectedly, despite what some economists said was a backdrop of continued weak economic growth and subdued inflation.
Business conditions in the New York region unexpectedly picked up in August, according to a survey from the NY Fed.
German economic sentiment improved in August as trade tensions between the EU and the US eased, according to the latest survey from the ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim.
The likelihood that Turkey will impose some degree of capital controls is rising with each passing minute, given President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's refusal to allow the central bank to hike interest rates, analysts at Jefferies said.
Turkey's currency crisis rumbled on into a second week as authorities did not announce any new measures until mid-morning on Monday.
China's central bank shifted its stance last month, leaning on the country's lenders to increase their loan volumes as Beijing seeks to offset weaker growth and the impact from frictions with its largest trading partners.