FTSE 100 made a muted start to Friday as investors digested the implications of yesterday’s government hand-out and windfall tax. The blue-chip index was down 14 points at 7,551 an hour after the open.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak today dismissed claims his new £15bn package to help households with energy bills will stoke inflation even more. “"Our estimate in my view is that it will have a minimal impact on inflation," he told Sky News “and much, much less than 1%”.
BP, meanwhile, has said it will review its North Sea investments in light of the windfall tax Sunak announced to help pay for the new measures. It said the tax was a "multi-year" proposal and it will look at its investment plans in the light of that.
Train and bus operator FirstGroup is facing a £1.2bn takeover offer from a US private equity firm. I Squared Capital has already had several offers rejected but its latest pitch, made on Wednesday evening, is being looked at by the board.
Elon Musk is being sued by a group of Twitter investors who claim the billionaire is manipulating the social media group’s share price lower as part of his takeover attempt. The investors have highlighted tweets made by Musk since he launched his bid.
EasyJet has apologised for the cancellation of around 200 flights due to IT problems. Most of the flights were yesterday afternoon, but some today have also been scrapped said the airline.
Among the small caps, San Leon Energy said crude has started to be trucked from a field in Nigeria where it has an interest. The junior owns 11.5% in operator Decklar Petroleum, which said last night it had transported 4,000 barrels from the Oza Oil Field to the handling facilities.