Weekly review
The FTSE 100 retreated by 88.14 points to end the week at 7,336.82.
Equity view
FastJet has appointed a new chairman and chief financial officer, along with another director appointment, to strengthen its board as the African budget airline attempts to turnaround its fortunes.
Lamprell, a provider of diversified fabrication, engineering and contracting services to the global energy industry, has swung to a full-year pre-tax loss driven by goodwill impairment, not helped by a fall in revenue.
Striking workers at BHP Billiton's Escondida mine in Chile agreed to end their 43-day industrial action on Thursday, but management are reportedly unhappy and analysts were unimpressed.
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is to sell its onshore interests in Gabon to Assala Energy, a portfolio company of Carlyle Group, for up to $1bn.
The Co-operative Bank said on Friday that a number of "credible strategic and financial parties" have expressed interest in the sale process and are currently evaluating information on the bank.
Acacia Mining said there has been no change on the Tanzanian government's ban on exports of gold and copper ore despite lobbying by the company, which is losing more than $1m per day in revenue.
Shareholders in private equity outfit Electra are about to share in a massive £1bn dividend payout, the company announced on Friday.
London Stock Exchange Group's proposed merger with Deutsche Boerse will be blocked by European Commission antitrust regulators, according to reports on Wednesday.
Acacia Mining said late on Tuesday that it has ended preliminary discussions with Canada's Endeavour Mining, as announced in January, and has decided not to progress towards a merger of the two businesses.
Annual results from retailer Kingfisher beat the City's profit forecasts thanks to strong growth from its Screwfix chain, but while the transformation of B&Q and French businesses continued, sales began to slow in the second half amid concerns of a consumer slowdown.
Iron ore miner Ferrexpo said it was resuming dividend payments after increasing net cash flows by more than 1. 5 times to $332m.
Housebuilder Redrow said its trading performance continues to be robust and it expects pre-tax profit for the year to the end of June 2017 to rise 22% from the prior year.
International real estate advisor Savills announced “record results” for the year to 31 December on Wednesday, with group revenue up 13% to £1. 45bn, or £1. 36bn in constant currency.
Vectura, a maker of inhaled airways products, reported that revenue grew last year on the back of recently launched products, but its loss before tax widened due to one-off charges from its merger with Skyepharma.
Britain’s high street banks processed nearly $740m from a money-laundering operation run by Russian criminals with links to the Russian government and former domestic KGB spy service, the Guardian newspaper reported, citing documents it had seen.
Downing announced plans to launch a new investment trust focused on the UK micro-cap space, which some analysts hailed as a potentially useful addition to the sector.
Investor in UK and continental European industrial property Hansteen announced its full year results for the year to 31 December on Monday, with a total annual return to shareholders of 23. 1p or 20. 8%, representing EPRA net asset value growth of 17. 7p plus dividends paid of 5. 35p.
John Laing Infrastructure Fund’s share price benefitted from the market volatility in the wake of the EU referendum and its 2016 net asset value increased.
Vodafone has agreed terms of a $23bn merger between its Indian business and Idea Cellular, which is part of the Aditya Birla Group.
Economic events
Land Securities confirmed it was in discussions with Deutsche Bank on pre-letting a site for the German banking giant's London headquarters.
British banks approved a smaller number of mortgages last month, according to the British Banking Association's monthly report on Friday, putting some pressure on the housing market.
Even an acceleration in consumer prices to 3. 5% might not justify a hike in Bank Rate, a top Bank of England official said, unless it is accompanied by growth in wages.
Britain's bill for exiting the European Union will be close to £50bn and "must be honoured", European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker said, but he is not approaching the impending divorce proceedings in a hostile mood.
Retail sales picked up more than expected up until mid-March, the CBI found in a monthly Distributive Trades survey that backed up earlier official figures but did not fill economic experts with much optimism.
UK retail sales in February proved much stronger than the market was expecting, sending sterling surging higher on Thursday but unlikely to prevent GDP growth from slowing in the first quarter.
The British government has banned the use of electronic devices larger than smartphones on flights from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia to the UK, following the lead set by the US.
A record number of fund managers now believed US equities were overvalued, despite lofty expectations for faster economic growth worldwide, the results of a widely-followed survey found.
New research suggests the electorate’s view on Britain’s exit from the European Union has changed little since the vote nine months ago - they want to have their cake and eat it.
International events
Donald Trump has handed out an ultimatum to his Republican colleagues in Congress ahead of a crucial vote on healthcare reform on Friday - vote it in or the US sticks with Obamacare.
US orders for goods meant to last more than three years jumped in February on the back of a large increase in those for civilian aircraft.
French National Front leader Marine Le Pen has urged the international community to lift sanctions placed on Russia after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The US central bank may now be in a better position to stop reinvesting the proceeds of its assets in acquiring new ones, a top member of the Federal Reserve said.
Business activity in the US expanded at its slowest pace since September 2016 in March, according to data released on Friday by IHS Markit.
Russia's central bank took markets by surprise on Friday, announcing it had cut its key policy rate in response to a quicker than expected drop in price pressures, with further cuts possible.
The European Central Bank will keep interest rates low well past the end of its bond purchase programme, its top policy thinker reiterated, while criticising anti-establishment parties' claims about the benefits of exiting the euro.
Markit's flash eurozone composite purchasing managers' index unexpectedly rose in March, to a near six-year high.
A top US rate-setter said the median expectation from policymakers for a total of three to four interest rate hikes in 2017 would make sense if the economy continued progressing as expected.
The US central bank should hike interest rates twice more in 2017 and was moving towards the point where the balance sheet could be allowed to start to reduce gradually, a top official said.
Ratings agency Fitch has downgraded Saudi Arabia's sovereign debt rating to 'A+' from 'AA-' as it expressed major doubts about the government's financial reform programme.