NatWest buys back £1bn of shares from state, Syncona's Autolus gets FDA nod

Stocks to watch

NatWest has repurchased £1bn of shares from the HM Treasury, taking the government’s stake in the banking group to 11.4%. The company said on Monday that it made an off-market purchase of 262.6m shares on Friday at a price of 380.8p, representing a 3.16% shareholding. This was the bank’s second buyback of government shares in 2024. “This transaction represents another important milestone on the path to full privatisation,” said chief executive Paul Thwaite.

Syncona announced on Monday that its portfolio company Autolus Therapeutics has received US FDA approval for ‘Aucatzyl’, a CAR T-cell therapy for adult patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The FTSE 250 company said the approval followed results from the ‘FELIX’ clinical trial, which showed a strong safety profile and notable efficacy, with 63% of patients achieving complete remission. It said Aucatzyl, manufactured in the UK, is the first CAR T-cell therapy in the category to be approved without a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy programme.

Newspaper round-up

Great Britain “lags behind” Europe on measures to restrict betting adverts, according to a report released days after official data showed a sharp increase in the number of children with a gambling problem. Restrictions on ads by bookmakers and casinos are increasingly becoming “the norm” across Europe in response to public health concerns, according to a report commissioned by GambleAware, the UK’s leading gambling charity. – Guardian

Hospitality businesses will be forced to close while others will have to slash jobs and investment as a result of changes to national insurance announced in the budget, according to a letter to the chancellor signed by the bosses of more than 200 of the UK’s largest restaurant, pub and hotel businesses. The letter – with signatories including the Premier Inn owner Whitbread and pub and restaurant group Mitchells & Butlers – comes as reports suggested Tesco would face an additional £1bn in costs over the course of the current parliament as the result of the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs). – Guardian

Britain’s wind generation is set to plummet to virtually zero this week as Ed Miliband presses ahead with plans to increase the nation’s reliance on renewable energy. Much of the UK has seen zero hours of sunshine this month, and the first part of this week will see already-light winds hit fresh lows in many areas, according to Met Office forecasters. – Telegraph

A City grandee, business groups and a staff union have urged MPs to intervene to ensure the publication of a long-delayed report on a £1 billion fraud at Lloyds Banking Group. Lord Tyrie, former chairman of the Treasury committee, said the handling of the Dame Linda Dobbs review into whether Lloyds covered up a fraud at HBOS, the lender it rescued in 2009, was “itself becoming a scandal”. – The Times

Vertical Aerospace is in advanced negotiations with creditors over a rescue deal that will probably result in its founder ceding control of the Bristol-based would-be manufacturer of electric flying taxis. Vertical could announce a deal as early as Tuesday with Jason Mudrick, an American distressed debt investor, based on the conversion of $200 million of loans from his Mudrick Capital into a big equity stake, significantly diluting the Ovo Energy tycoon Stephen Fitzpatrick’s 70 per cent control of the company. – The Times

US close

US stocks registered mild gains on Friday but still managed to hit new records as the post-election rally continued, with the Dow and S&P 500 putting in their best weekly performance of the year so far.

The Dow was up 0.6% at 43,988.99, putting it on a 4.9% gain for the week, while the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 5,995.54, finishing 4.7% higher than last Friday.

Meanwhile the Nasdaq only gained 0.1% to 19,286.78, held back by heavy falls from Chinese companies as Beijing's latest stimulus measures underwhelmed. Nevertheless the index still rose 5.9% on the week.

The Federal Reserve's decision to lower interest rates was still drawing an amount of investor attention on Friday, as were comments from Jerome Powell.

The Fed chair said he was "feeling good" about the state of the US economy during his post-meeting presser, but did warn that the US was on an unsustainable path as far as fiscal policy was concerned.