AstraZeneca strikes agreement with Neurimmune, Clarkson FY profits boosted by strong December trading

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was being called to open 10.0 points higher ahead of the bell on Friday after having closed 0.88% lower in the previous session at 7,450.37.

Stocks to watch

Drugmaker AstraZeneca's Alexion rare diseases unit has inked an exclusive collaboration and license agreement with Neurimmune that will see the pair develop and commercialise NI006, an investigational human monoclonal antibody for the treatment of transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy.

AstraZeneca said on Friday that under the agreement, Alexion will be granted an exclusive worldwide licence to develop, manufacture and commercialise NI006, with Neurimmune receiving an upfront payment of $30.0m and the potential for additional contingent milestone payments of up to $730.0m, as well as low-to-mid teen royalties on net sales of any approved medicine resulting from the collaboration.

Shipping broker Clarksons expects to report an underlying full-year profit of no less than £69.0m after delivering a stronger than anticipated trading performance during the month of December.

The FTSE 250-listed company said on Friday that the result, which was still subject to audit, was driven by its broking division, where the sale and purchase team completed a number of asset transactions, and its financial unit, where the project finance and securities teams completed a number of financing transactions.

Newspaper round-up

Boris Johnson should bar Bain & Company from lucrative government contracts in light of a judicial commission’s findings about the management consultancy's "despicable" role in state corruption in South Africa, Peter Hain has said. In a letter shared with the Guardian, the former Labour minister and anti-apartheid campaigner urged Johnson to "immediately freeze all government contracts with Bain" and to advise all public bodies to do the same. - Guardian

One of Britain's biggest technology companies is investigating suspicious payments to senior executives at its Chinese joint venture, presenting a potential complication to its $40.0bn (£30.0bn) takeover by a US rival. Cambridge-based microchip maker Arm said that "allegations related to the appropriateness of payments" had been made against senior management at Arm China, which it co-owns with a Chinese investment firm. - Telegraph

More than 50 lenders are caught up in an alleged fraud at Arena Television, which is suspected of inventing thousands of fake assets as it racked up nearly £300.0m of loans, administrators have revealed. High street banks and specialist lenders are facing embarrassment and substantial losses as it emerged that only nine of fifty-five lenders to Arena have any verified assets supporting their loans, according to an official filing by insolvency practitioners at Kroll. - The Times

The Hunterston B nuclear power station will shut down for ever at noon on Friday after 46 years of service, reducing the UK's nuclear capacity by one-eighth and prompting calls from the industry for greater government backing for the sector. The plant, on the west coast of Scotland, provided one gigawatt of the UK’s 7.9GW nuclear capacity, enough to power to 1.7m homes. - Guardian

When Simon Farthing started travelling less amid the pandemic, he traded in his petrol-run Volkswagen Tiguan for an all-electric Tesla Model 3. "If you're only going from your home to work, and back to your home again, you find you don't need the convenience of a car that can do longer range," says Farthing, the manager of a software company. "It’s fantastic," he adds. "It feels very, very safe and secure on the road." - Telegraph

US close

Wall Street stocks ended the session in the red on Thursday as fears over tighter monetary policy remained in focus and investors digested a number of key data points.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.47% at 36,236.47, while the S&P 500 was 0.10% weaker at 4,696.05 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.13% softer at 15,080.86.

The Dow closed 170.64 points lower on Thursday, extending losses recorded in the previous session after minutes from the latest Federal Reserve Bank meeting revealed a more hawkish tone than previously communicated, with some officials looking to raise interest rates faster and trim its $8.8trn balance sheet to combat spiralling costs of living.