The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) dropped a corruption inquiry into former FTSE 100 mine company ENRC, according to The Sunday Times. The SFO claims the inquiry is no longer justifiable after ENRC launched a £70 mn civil claim in the High Court against the SFO.
On Monday stocks rose slightly – a sign of what was to come in the week – as investors looked ahead to an important Fed meeting this week, reported CNBC. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53 points while the S&P 500 traded 0.3 percent higher. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, rising 0.75 percent as tech shares increased.
After much hype, San Francisco-based Slack fulfilled much of its promise, seeing its shares sell at 50 percent higher than expected on its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, reported The Guardian.
Neil Woodford’s investment firm has overseen a sale of at least £169 mn of shares in an attempt to raise cash ahead of the reopening of his suspended Equity Income Fund, reported The Telegraph.
Bitcoin is to exceed an all-time high following the announcement Facebook will be launching its own crypto-currency, reported The Express.
British digital bank Revolut ruled out an IPO in the near future as it focuses on another bout of private fundraising, according to the Financial News.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, rejected plans to fight sexual harassment and improve diversity at its AGM, according to The Guardian.
It was a good week for stocks throughout the globe. Stocks hit a record high in the US on Thursday, with the S&P 500 up, a day after the Fed offered the possibility of interest rate cuts in the coming months, following holding them on this occasion, according The New York Times. The Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped five percent this week, beating all other 93 major benchmarks, according to Bloomberg – the best weekly rally since early November. And European markets finished higher Thursday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 up, as investors reacted to the holding of interest rates by the Bank of England and the Fed, according to CNBC.
But billionaire investor Leon Cooperman believes the stock market is in a ‘zone of fair value’, warning that that a move higher in stocks could signal ‘the close-out move,’ that is to say, the end of the recent bullish run, reported CNBC.
The Bank of England expects zero growth in the UK economy in the second quarter of the year as the possibility of a no-deal Brexit and the US-China trade war take hold, according to Sky News.
In a letter to President Donald Trump, Apple warned that additional China tariffs will help global rivals, according to the BBC.
There is more disappointment for investors in UK insurance specialist company Saga, which said the company faces challenging conditions in its travel and insurance markets – and comes a week after it was announced that company CEO Lance Batchelor would leave in January, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Online payments company Bill.com is currently meeting with investment banks to select underwriters for an IPO, according to the Business Insider.
The UK’s Trainline was on the right track with an impressive opening to its IPO on Friday, as the rail ticketing group’s shares rose by 23 percent on London market debut, reported Reuters.
