Weekly review

Equity view

Energy firm Drax shares plunged after the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced planned changes to one of its subsidy schemes for biomass plants.

Telefónica chairman César Alierta reportedly flew to London on Thursday as BT nears a decision over whether to pick up the Spanish company's mobile firm O2 or instead opt for Orange and Deutsche Telekom's EE.

Defence and security group BAE Systems has completed the acquisition of commercial cyber service provider Perimeter Internetworking, which trades as SilverSky, for £144.4m.

Superdry-owner SuperGroup suffered a 30% drop in pre-tax profits, warning of lower gross margins after unseasonable autumn weather weighed heavily on sales in the six month period ended 25 October.

Oil major BP warned of $1bn of restructuring charges over the coming year on Wednesday, as turmoil in the crude market continued with prices dropping to a fresh five-year low.

Rolls-Royce Holdings on Wednesday announced a £1bn share buyback following the completion of the sale of its energy gas turbine and compressor business to Siemens.

Natural gas giant BG Group is to raise $5bn (£3.2bn) from the sale of a gas pipeline in Australia which is planned to go towards reducing debt and future growth investments.

Economic news

UK construction activity declined unexpectedly in October according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released on Friday.

The Bank of England (BoE) announced landmark changes to the way it publishes monetary policy decisions, pledging to make minutes from discussions and interest rate announcements available to the public from August 2015.

The UK trade deficit narrowed to a seven-month low in October of £9.6bn from £10.5bn the month before, according to the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday.

The UK economy is estimated to have grown by 0.7% during the three months to the end of November, according to data from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

UK industrial production decreased 0.1% in October from the previous month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), despite forecasts for a rise of 0.2%.

Retail sales saw healthy growth in November, particularly in Non-Food online sales which were boosted by strong demand on Black Friday, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) retail sales monitor.

HMRC took a record £3.9bn in extra VAT from compliance investigations into small businesses in the last year, a 10% rise on the previous year, according to UHY Hacker Young, the national accountancy group.

The number of UK families that have to rely on food banks is "shocking", according to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

International events

European Central Bank executive board member Peter Praet said falling oil prices could force the euro-area inflation rate below zero.

A jump in US shale supplies prompted the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to slash its projected volume of crude oil demand for next year to a 12-year low.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has cut global oil demand forecast for the fourth time in the last five months.

China has reported intentions to pump £41bn into the nation's banking system, while allowing banks to lend an extra £1.03tn in the final weeks of 2014 to stimulate flagging economic growth.

The rate of price increases in Germany slowed in November as most of the main item categories saw lower prices and energy prices had the largest downward impact.

The US federal government's budget deficit shrank in November by more than expected, as continued hiring buoyed tax receipts.

The international price of oil moved sharply lower again on Wednesday, after a report predicted lower demand for oil and higher supplies from outside the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) next year.

Oil prices are likely to remain around $65 a barrel for the next six to seven months until the global economy recovers, the head of state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said.

The military authorities of Ukraine suspended all hostile action against Russian-backed separatists on Tuesday.

Chinese lenders have been pressing the central bank to let them lend out more of their deposits amid a slowing in the country's economy and increased pressure on banks' profitability.

Japan's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by more than was thought in the three months to the end of September, as investment and public expenditures increased by less previously estimated.