Lloyds recommences dividend after six years
London open
City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open around three points lower than Thursday’s close of 6,949.73.
Stocks to watch
Lloyds Banking Group has resumed payment of its dividend after six years, with a small payment of 0.75p, as profits marginally beat market forecasts and its balance sheet grew more solid. Underlying profits surged 26% to £7.8bn, just ahead of a consensus analyst forecast of £7.7m, as the bank set aside a further £700m provision for mis-sold payment protection insurance to bring its annual total to £2.2bn.
Diversified mining group Rio Tinto has announced plans to streamline its product groups and corporate functions as it looks to cut costs and simplify its structure. The group is to condense from the current five product groups into four: aluminium, copper and coal, diamonds and minerals, and iron ore. The current energy division, which houses its coal and uranium assets, is being split up with uranium joining the diamonds and minerals unit.
BA owner IAG has operating profits 80.5% higher for 2014 at £1.4bn, thanks partly to cheaper fuel. The company reported that non-fuel unit costs for the quarter decreased by 0.8% at a constant currency.
In the press
Germany is expected to approve a new bailout deal for Greece on Friday, The Telegraph reported.
Ukraine has refused to pay for more gas deliveries to Russia, arguing that Gazprom only supplied 40% of the order it promised, The Times wrote.
National Rail chief executive Mark Carne has condemned the railway system for looking like a “scrapheap” cluttered with old rails, sleepers and graffiti, wrote The Times.
US close
US stocks fell on Thursday after oil prices lowered and a batch of mixed economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.06% to 18,214.42 while Nasdaq advanced 0.42% to 4,987.89 and S&P 500 declined 0.15% to 2,110.74.
Data on Thursday showed that US consumer-price inflation turned negative for the first time since 2009, US jobless claims unexpectedly jumped last week, while US durable goods rose more than expected in January.