Weekly review
The FTSE 100 ended the week 20.7 points lower at 7,681.07.
Equity view
Lloyds Bank on Friday said it had sold its remaining 3.3% in Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) for £344m.
Legoland and Alton Towers operator Merlin Entertainments has appointed Andrew Fisher, current chairman and former CEO of Apple's Shazam music business, as a director.
Games Workshop updated the market on the end of its trading year on Friday, reporting that its sales and profit growth, as discussed in its update on 4 May, had continued to the end of the financial year.
Bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair's US wing has reached long-term agreements to provide retail and online sports betting to New Jersey's Meadowlands Racetrack and Tioga Downs in New York pending legislative and regulatory authorization.
Intertek has acquired UK and Malaysia-based network security and assurance services provider, NTA Monitor, for an undisclosed sum.
NewRiver Real Estate Investment Trust on Thursday said it had bought Grays Shopping Centre in Essex for £20.2m.
Kier Group announced the establishment of a joint venture with Homes England and Cross Keys Homes, to develop around 5,400 homes across the country over the next 10 years.
Unite Students said on Thursday that it has been given planning approval for a 928-bed student accommodation development in Leeds.
Budget airline easyJet said May passenger numbers rose 3.7% year-on-year to 7.5m.
Outsourcing firm Serco on Wednesday said it had won an extension to its US contract to process healthcare eligibility applications worth up to $900m (£670.6m).
Workspace Group issued its full-year results for the year ended 31 March on Wednesday, reporting profit before tax of £170.4m - up from £88.8m - with “significant” increases in both trading profit and property valuation.
Challenger bank Charter Court Financial Services on Wednesday said it was selling its residual interest in the Charter Mortgage Funding 2018-1 plc securitisation for £13.8m.
RHI Magnesita chief financial officer Octavio Pereira Lopes said he planned to leave the company by the end of 2018 and return to Brazil with his family to pursue other career opportunities, the company announced on Tuesday.
The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) said it had bought two onshore wind farms in Northern France for €28m.
The boardroom battle at Stobart Group continued on Tuesday as the Southend Airport owner confirmed that its deposed former chief executive Andrew Tinkler and fund manager Neil Woodford have proposed retail guru Philip Day as a new director.
Premaitha Health announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a three year agreement with an Indian clinical laboratory group to provide a scalable non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) solution.
Wizz Air issued its passenger statistics for May on Monday, seeing another rise in both capacity and passenger numbers, with capacity ahead 17.1% at 3,086,626 when compared to the same month last year.
Rolls-Royce confirmed on Monday that completion of the sale of its fuel injector business, L'Orange, to Colorado-based Woodward took place on 1 June.
Amino Technologies' end-to-end multiscreen video platform has been selected by Dutch cable operator Kabelnoord for the rollout of its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network.
DS Smith on Monday said it was buying Spanish packaging firm Europac for €1.67bn (£1.45bn), or €16.80 a share.
Economic news
The UK high street recorded a 12-year low in its year-on-year May performance, with warm weather, two bank holidays and the royal wedding failing to bring out shoppers.
Britons' inflation expectations rose in May, despite the recent slowdown in price pressures, the Bank of England said.
Annual house price growth in the UK softened in May, as expected, according to data from mortgage lender Halifax.
Brexit Secretary David Davis and Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday averted a crisis when they agreed a compromise on the proposed Irish border "backstop" plan stating the arrangement should be in place by the end of December 2021 and "time limited".
Chaos-enduring commuters in the north of England have even more major disruption to look forward to, as the RMT union ordered staff to walk out over allegations the company wants to remove guards from its trains.
The opposition UK Labour Party is divided over its stance on Britain's membership of the single market, its Brexit spokesman admitted on Wednesday.
Output from the UK's key services industry picked up more strongly than hoped last month, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
UK new car registrations rose 3.4% in May, the second consecutive month of growth, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said on Tuesday.
UK construction activity was stronger than expected last month but rates of new business declined, a closely followed industry survey revealed on Monday.
International events
China's trade performance was resilient in May with imports surging more than export growth to surprisingly reduce the monthly surplus, while Japan's first quarter economic output was confirmed.
Deutsche Bank chairman Paul Achleitner has reportedly spoken to shareholders this week about a potential merger with Commerzbank.
IKEA is planning to eliminate all single-use plastic products from its catalogue by 2020 in a bid to help solve the growing global environmental crisis resulting from their use.
Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE has agreed to pay a $1bn fine and to the presence of a compliance team chosen by US officials inside the firm as part of a deal to regain access to American-made components and technology.
The World Bank has warned that the possibility of policy shocks from major economies and trade tensions such as the escalating tariffs between the US and its trading partners could lead to financial market disruptions and potentially to a large scale financial crisis.
America's trade shortfall with the rest of the world narrowed in April, despite a big drop in aircraft export sales, which economists said pointed to a big contribution to economic activity in the second quarter.
The pace of economic activity in the euro area reached its lowest ebb in 18 months in May with economists uncertain about the risk of a further slowdown.
The US government is understood to have asked Saudi Arabia and some other OPEC producers to increase oil production by about 1m barrels a day.
China has threatened to withdraw from its previously agreed commitments with Washington to cut its bilateral trade deficit on goods with the US if President Donald Trump moves ahead with tariffs on $50bn-worth of Chinese products.
Factory gate prices in the single currency bloc fell back in April as energy cost pressures continued to ebb.
Greece's troubled economy expanded roughly twice as quickly as economists had expected during the first three months of the year, despite a sharp drop in investment.