The UK Government has sold another chunk of NatWest shares as the lender continues its long return to full private ownership. The latest sale raised more than £1.24billion and reduces the taxpayer's stake in the lender from 26 per cent to approximately 22.5 per cent.

JD Sports shares tumbled on Friday morning after the retailer revealed a dip in profits, despite a 'strong performance in a challenging market'. The sports retailer said revenues increased 2.7 per cent to £10.4bn in the year to 27 January, while organic like-for-like sales grew 3.8 per cent.

The British firm said yesterday that the drug, being developed with Japan's Daiichi Sankyo, could be 'an important new treatment for patients'. The FTSE 100 drugmaker last week outlined plans to almost double revenues by the end of the decade.

The negotiations go on, but as the deadline for Aussie miner BHP to unveil its formal £39bn bid for London-listed natural resources group Anglo-American arrives later today, a distance between the two sides remains. The bid cliff-edge coincides with today's South African elections so an extension may be a wise course.

Let's step back from the politics, of which there will be more than enough in coming weeks, and focus on the economic inheritance of the next Government. It is not a bad hand at all, though given the most likely Election outcome, the incoming Labour team will claim it is a terrible one. The broad economic outcomes for the rest of this year are pretty clear.

A cautious US Federal Reserve and a slightly higher-than-expected UK inflation print this week has derailed some of the recent momentum that has driven the FTSE 100 to record highs this year. But improving economic performance, easing inflation and expectations of looming interest rate cuts have reinvigorated interest in the FTSE 100, driving the index roughly 9.4 per cent higher since the start of 2024 to 8,479 last week.