FTSE 100 opened higher after UK government borrowing came in at £24.3bn for May, which was lower than expectations and well below last year’s levels. London’s leading index added 14 points to 7,076 in early trading.
The growth of online grocery shopping has stuttered as Britons are slowly returning to pre-pandemic habits. Take-home grocery sales dipped 1.6% compared to last year but were still £3.3bn higher than in 2019, according to Kantar.
Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR.) has lined up two private equity companies as potential buyers of its Spanish aircraft parts maker ITP Aero. The price tag is understood to be €1.5bn.
Melrose Industries PLC (LON:MRO) will pay a £730mln special dividend worth 15p per share. It comes after the £2.6bn disposal of Nortek Air Management.
One Media IP Group PLC (LON:OMIP) has acquired the producer royalties to three albums by Heatwave, the seventies disco-soul legends. The albums were produced by Barry Blue, no stranger to the charts himself as a solo artist with his hit “Dancin’ (On A Saturday Night)”.
Inspiration Healthcare Group PLC (LON:IHC) said clinical testing is formally underway of the respiratory device it has designed for use in neonatal intensive care known as Project WAVE. The technology is being used to treat a newborn at the Trevor Mann Baby Unit, Brighton & Sussex University Hospital.
Touchstone Exploration Inc (LON:TXP, TSE:TXP) has executed a ten-year lease operatorship agreement which sets up a round of drilling to support production in Trinidad. The ten-year extension covers blocks that span the group’s legacy oil producing properties.