After a strong week for the index the FTSE 100 starts off on an uncertain note on Monday down 0.2% to 7,473.11 as new tariffs in China and the US take effect.
Travel company Thomas Cook (TCG) downgrades its annual earnings guidance after warm summer weather prompted many people to stay at home, while also announcing that chief financial officer Bill Scott has decided to step down. The shares drop 23.7% to 59.4p.
Earnings before interest and tax are now expected to be around £280m, based on currently trading, compared with previous guidance given in July of £323m.
Pay-TV giant Sky (SKY) gains 8.6% to £17.21 as its board urges shareholders to immediately accept a £30.6bn bid from US media conglomerate Comcast which won an auction process mandated by the UK Takeover Panel over 21st Century Fox at the weekend.
Canada’s Barrick Gold agrees a $18.3bn merger with Randgold Resources (RRS) contingent on shareholder approval. Shares in Randgold are up 4% to £51.21.
Randgold shareholders will get 6.1280 new Barrick shares for each Randgold share. Following completion of the deal, Barrick shareholders would own 66.6% of the combined company, while Randgold shareholders would own the remaining 33.4%.
'The boards of Barrick and Randgold believe that the merger will create an industry-leading gold company with the greatest concentration of tier one gold assets in the industry,' the companies note.
A merged group would also have the lowest total cash cost position among senior gold peers and a diversified asset portfolio positioned for growth in many of the world's most prolific gold districts they add.
AIM-quoted bioscience business EQTEC (EQT:AIM) gains 25.9% to 1.41p as it secures a memorandum of understanding with a California based power firm to supply its proprietary gasifier technology for two of the latter’s facilities.
