Weekly Review
The FTSE 100 Index finished up 86.17 points on the week at 6,775.25.
Equity view
Mining group Rio Tinto said it will decide on the future of its majority stake in a long-dormant copper mine in Papua New Guinea after new legislation from the government.
Imperial Tobacco maintained its full-year guidance for "modest" earnings growth despite revenues slipping in the first nine months.
Favourable weather in Europe and an ongoing recovery in the States helped CRH to offset difficult conditions in the wider Americas region, with the building materials group swinging to a profit in the first half of 2014.
Profits rose 57% in the first half of the year at housebuilder Persimmon, which said trading in the early weeks of the second half remained ahead of tough comparative numbers from the prior year.
First-half earnings at energy services provider John Wood Group were flat but slightly better than the market was expecting as the company benefitted from strong activity in the US shale sector.
Details of BHP Billiton's hotly-anticipated "portfolio simplification" were unveiled on Tuesday with the miner announcing plans to create an independent company listed in Australia comprising its aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel and silver assets. However, the absence of a share buyback - which some investors had hoped for - saw the stock come under some selling pressure.
Mining and trading giant Glencore reported an 11% increase in its interim dividend and unveiled a $1bn share buyback after profits rose in the first half of 2014.
Construction firm Carillion has officially pulled out of the running for a merger with rival Balfour Beatty after yet another rejection by the infrastructure specialist on Wednesday.
Norman Murray, the chairman of three years at oilfield services group Petrofac, announced his resignation from the board on Friday.
A bid battle has broken out for design and engineering group Hyder Consultancy after a Dutch group trumped a £268.1m bid by Japanese engineering consultant Nippon Koei.
Economic news
Confidence in the UK economy has dropped for the second month in a row as downbeat economic news starts to dampen spirits, according to the Lloyds Bank Spending Power Report for July.
Asking prices of properties in the UK fell 2.9% in August, their biggest fall ever recorded, led by a 5.9% drop in London, Rightmove said.
Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney has said that the central bank may not wait for wages to grow before lifting interest rates.
The annual rate of UK consumer price inflation sank from 1.9% to 1.6% in July, well below the 1.8% estimated by economists.
The year-on-year rate of home-price appreciation slowed a tad in June from 10.4% to 10.2%, according to government statisticians. The average UK mix-adjusted house price stood at £265,000 in June, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Minutes from this month's Monetary Policy Committee meeting showed that two out of the nine members actually voted for an increase in the Bank Rate. This was the first split vote in three years.
UK retail sales growth of 0.1% in July came in lower than expected, missing forecasts for a 0.4% improvement.
British car production rose again in July as the boom in the industry continued, boosted by record exports. Manufacturers turned out 132,570 cars in July, up 2.8% year-on-year as 2014's steady growth continued, the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) said.
Sales of food have declined for the first time since records began, according to the ONS, with the quantity and the amount spent both seeing a drop as supermarkets do battle to win back market share.
HSBC chairman Douglas Flint said on Friday that Scottish independence would leave the country's financial system in a dangerous state and prompt "capital flight".
International events
The US housing market could be showing signs of recovery after the Commerce Department announced on Tuesday that housing starts and building permits in the US bounced back strongly in July, up 15.7% and 8.1% respectively.
The killing of kidnapped US photojournalist James Foley by Islamic State militants sparked international outrage this week. IS said the murder was in retaliation to US airstrikes in northern Iraq.
Amid tensions with the west and following tit-for-tat economic sanctions, Russia has closed four McDonald's restaurants and has put many more of the company's 430 outlets under investigation due to sanitation concerns.
First-half profits from Heineken fizzed 13% above last year's thanks to the World Cup and favourable weather.
Carlsberg cut its outlook for the second half of the year after performing badly at the first half due to tensions in Eastern Europe.
Apple shares closed on Tuesday at a record high of $100.53, as investors expect new products to boost revenue growth.
Bank of America has agreed pay a record settlement of $16.65bn in response to an investigation into transactions relating to the 2008 financial crisis, the Justice department said on Thursday.
Computer and hardware giant Hewlett-Packard beat forecasts with a surprise 1% increase in third-quarter revenues to $27.6bn, helped by a jump in sales from its PC division. This was the first improvement in group revenues in 11 quarters.