Good morning from London where the FTSE 100 opened the last day of the working week higher on some more positive results for London-listed companies.
Scandal-struck NatWest was among them, announcing a £1bn jump in pre-tax profit to £3.6bn at the half-year stage, alongside a £500mln buyback and 5.5p dividend for investors.
Announcing an even larger US$1bn buyback was Standard Chartered, which reported a 20% jump in interim profit and hinted at heightened expectations for the full year.
British Airways owner International Airlines Group flew past consensus expectations meanwhile, announcing a half-year profit of €1.26bn, compared to a loss last year.
A deal to buy Pfizer’s early-stage gene therapy portfolio saw AstraZeneca jump too, as the drugmaker also unveiled better-than-expected second-quarter results.
Elsewhere, Rightmove saw revenues jump at their highest rate since the first half of 2018.
And rising among the small caps was Europa Oil & Gas, which announced this morning its taking over the Cloughton gas discovery near Scarborough.