Diageo begins buyback, IP Group joins Artios fundraising
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to fall 28 points on Friday, having dipped to a close of 7,741.77 the day before.
Stocks to watch
Diageo has told its broker to kick off the first swathe of its £2bn share buyback programme from Friday. Citigroup will begin purchasing the drinks giant's shares up to a value of up to £1.4bn, with further tranche to be announced by the FTSE 100 company later in the financial year to June 2019.
IP Group has committed to investing £5m in portfolio company Artios Pharma as it raises £65m in a Series B financing. The financing was significantly oversubscribed, with new investors including by the venture capital arms of Pfizer and Novartis.
SSP has found investors for a $175m issue of US bonds to replace existing debt and for general corporate purposes. The issue of the private placement notes will allow the food service group to diversify its sources of debt financing and extend its debt maturity profile out to 2030.
Newspaper round-up
EU leaders are considering a compromise over Brexit that would allow Britain access to the single market for goods while ending freedom of movement of people. In the first sign of divergence between EU member states and Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier, leaders are expected to sound out Theresa May about a compromise at a summit in Salzburg next month. – Telegraph
The Confederation of British Industry has urged Theresa May to drop her “blunt target” on immigration numbers and introduce new freedom of movement rules for EU citizens post-Brexit to ensure firms, large and small, can stay in business when the UK leaves the bloc. Outlining the results of a major consultation with business leaders, Josh Hardie, the CBI’s deputy director general, said companies believed an injection of honesty was urgently needed in the political debate about migration. – Guardian
Global trade is set to lose momentum over the coming months amid tensions between the US and China that would hit the poorest hardest. The World Trade Organisation forecast a slowdown in the third quarter and said that falling export orders and a slowing car market would reduce trade growth. The WTO has 164 member states and was established in 1995 as a regulator and place for countries to negotiate deals and settle disputes. – The Times
US close
US indices finished lower across the board on Thursday, despite better-than-expected readings on jobless claims and factory gate prices, with investors apparently playing it safe as the Wall Street trio continue to push nearer their record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.29% to 25,509.23, the S&P 500 was off 0.14% at 2,853.58, and the Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.04% to 7,466.96.
In economic news, the year-on-year rate of gains in factory gate prices slipped to 3.3% in July from 3.4% for June, even as at the core level the pace of gains picked-up from 2.7% to 2.8%, as expected.