The agreement of a 90-day ceasefire in the US-China trade war over the weekend is buoying the FTSE 100 this morning, up 2.1% in early trading to 7,126.51.
In particular, stocks with exposure to Chinese economic growth like the miners and luxury goods firm Burberry (BRBY) start the week very much on the front foot
Convenience store retailer McColl's Retail (MCLS) warns of lower than anticipated earnings as it continues to feel the impact of the collapse of wholesale supplier Palmer & Harvey. The shares slide 23.4% to 91p.
The company also says a stronger performance in its tobacco division, relative to other categories, had resulted in a weaker conversion of sales to profits.
Adjusted earnings for the year ended 25 November are now expected to total around £35m.
London Southend airport owner Stobart Group (STOB) is cutting its dividend after conducting a capital review.
The fourth quarter dividend is being reduced to 1.5p per share, bringing dividends for the full financial year to 15p, down from 16.5p on-year.
Stobart says it has decided it would be more prudent to use proceeds from further asset disposals to invest in 'value-created opportunities based on sustainable operating cash generation and to maintain a strong balance sheet'.
If the company had maintained the dividend at 16.5p, it would have implied a yield upwards of 8% at Friday’s closing price. The shares fall 5.4% to 187p this morning.
Plastic products manufacturer RPC (RPC) dips 2.5% to 698.6p as Bain Capital abandons its takeover of the company, leaving Apollo Global Management as its sole remaining suitor.
RPC previously announced it was in discussions with each of Apollo and Bain, both had to make a firm intention to bid for the company by today under UK takeover rules.
RPC says it has been granted an extension by UK regulators to keep talking o Apollo, which now has until 21 December to table a firm offer for the group.
Global pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (AZN) completes an agreement to sell the prescription medicine rights to its acid reflux treatment in Europe, and the global rights to its arthritis treatment to Grunenthal for combined total of $815m.
Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca receives payments of $700m for its acid reflux treatment Nexium and $115m for its arthritis treatment Vimovo from Grunenthal.
