FTSE 100 was seen lower, losing 70 points to 7,213. The market followed further falls in the US and Asia.
Rio Tinto reached an agreement in principle to acquire full ownership of Canadian mineral explorer Turquoise Hill for US$3.3bn. Turquoise Hill owns 66% of Oyu Tolgoi, one of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits, located in Mongolia.
British households are expecting their worst living standards squeeze in a century. Real household disposable income is forecast to fall by 10% this year and the next.
Reckitt Benckiser chief executive Laxman Narasimhan is leaving the FTSE 100 group after exactly three years. The existing CEO wishes to return to the US.
MGC Pharmaceuticals posted a 57% increase in annual sales. Performance was driven by demand for its ArtemiC product and its cannabis-derived medicines.
Cambridge Cognition landed a £2.2mln contract to provide cognitive assessments and electronic diaries for a neurodegenerative disease trial. Specifically, it will deliver the technology for a hybrid study, combining in-clinic with at-home evaluations.
IXICO, the brain scan data specialist, said underlying profits this year will be comfortably ahead of its previous guidance of £1.2mln. It added that since March, it had signed contracts worth around £7.5mln.