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Weekly Review

Date: Friday 01 Jun 2012

The FTSE 100 closed down 92 points on the week at 5,260 points.

Equity view

Drinks giant Diageo is set to buy Ypioca, one of Brazil's largest cachaca brands in Brazil, the company announced on Monday. The group has reached an agreement with Ypioca Agroindustrial Limitada to purchase its white rum brand for 900m Brazilian real, or £300m, in cash.

Plumbers' merchant Wolseley has seen like-for-like growth slow down in its fiscal third quarter as it runs up against tougher comparatives from last year.

BG Group is to sell its majority stake in Brazilian gas distributor Comgás for around $1.7bn. The natural gas producer has signed a binding agreement with Brazilian firm Cosan S.A. Indústria e Comércio for the sale of the group's entire 60.1% holding in Comgás.

Utility provider Severn Trent announced profits were down but revealed a special dividend and said it forecast no water restrictions for customers this year.

Do-it-yourself retailer Kingfisher revealed that total sales in the 13 weeks to April 28th were down 3.6%, or 1.3% on a constant currency (CC) basis, from a year earlier at £2,632m, as poor weather across Europe affected footfall.

Financial services giant Prudential is to get its hands on Reassure American Life Insurance Company (REALIC) through the acquisition of its US holding company from Swiss Re.

Sweeteners firm Tate and Lyle returned full-year profit numbers in line with expectations as it saw steady top-line growth across a number of its markets.

Another UK technology firm looks set to fall into the hands of foreign owners after business and technology services company Logica agreed to a takeover from Canadian peer CGI Group.

BP has revealed that it wants to sell-up at TNK-BP, the joint venture it set up with a consortium of Russian investors, as speculation has run rampant in recent days of a breakdown in the relationship between the British oil firm and its partners.

Economic news

The Government is to back down on plans to introduce VAT on hot savouries, such as Cornish Pasties. It will also cut the level of VAT it intends to levy on static caravans from 20% to 5%. The 'pasty tax' in particular proved damaging for the government, leading to accusations that its leadership was out of touch with ordinary voters.

Mortgage lending rose slightly in April but was still well below the 25-month high seen in January, when buyers rushed to take advantage of a stamp duty holiday. The Bank of England's figures show mortgage approvals for house purchases rose modestly to 51,823 in April from 51,067 in March.

The money supply (excluding other intermediate financial corporations) increased by £10.6bn in April, according to the latest data from the Bank of England, versus the average increase of £3.9bn seen in the previous six months.

GfK’s consumer confidence index for the month of May in the United Kingdom has improved to -29 points, from -31 in the month before. The consensus estimate was for a smaller improvement, to -31.

The Markit/CIPS manufacturing sector purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the United Kingdom fell to 45.9 points in May (Consensus: 49.8) from 50.2 in April, to levels not seen since 2009, at the depths of the current financial crisis. The rate of decline in the headline index was the second-steepest in its 20-year history.

International events

Spanish financial institution Bankia has asked for €19bn in state aid in order to strengthen its solvency; investors are wondering how the debt-stricken country plans on coming up with the funds, especially have the country’s Minister of Economy Luis de Guindos originally gave a €9bn figure.

Several opinion polls published last weekend showed pro-bailout party New Democracy as the favourite to win the elections in Greece on June 17th, putting the group ahead of the radical left wing Syriza.

Japanese ratings agency Rating and Investment Information (R and I) has cut Spain’s credit rating to 'A' from the previous 'AA' while keeping the country under review for a possible further downgrade.

China does not intend to introduce economic stimulus measures like it did when the financial crisis started, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua. "The Chinese government's intention is very clear: It will not roll out another massive stimulus plan to seek high economic growth," reported the Chinese news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.

Moody’s has downgraded nine Danish banks and specialised lenders, and the three banking and insurance entities that make up the Finnish Pohjola group.

The US private sector added fewer-than-expected jobs in May, according to payrolls processor Automatic Data Procssing (ADP). Some 133,000 jobs were created in the private sector this month, ADP said, while April’s reading was revised lower from 119,000 to 113,000.

Non-farm payrolls in the United States grew by 69,000 during the month of May, according to data released by the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS). That when the consensus estimate had been for an increase of 150,000.

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