Centrica signs $8bn US LNG deal, Pennon buys three renewable power projects
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open four points higher on Tuesday, having closed up 0.23% on Monday at 7,273.79.
Stocks to watch
UK energy company Centrica on Tuesday said it had signed an $8bn deal with US-based Delfin Midstream to buy 1.0 million of liquefied natural gas a year for 15 years. The agreement will see Centrica take delivery of around 14 LNG cargoes per year from the Delfin Deepwater Port, located 40 nautical miles off the coast of Louisiana, and could provide enough energy to heat 5% of UK homes for 15 years, the company said in a statement.
Pennon Group announced the acquisition of three renewable energy projects across the UK on Tuesday, as part of its long-term sustainable growth strategy. The FTSE 250 utilities provider said the projects, located in Buckinghamshire, Aberdeenshire, and Cumbria, would generate more than 95 GWh of electricity annually using solar photovoltaic, increasing Pennon’s self-generation capacity to around 40%. It said the acquisition cost was about £85m, with the projects expected to start generating power in 2025.
Newspaper round-up
The main lobby group for the UK gambling industry has been accused of making inaccurate statements relating to the regulation of the £10bn-a-year sector the day before its boss appears before a parliamentary committee. Michael Dugher, the chief executive of the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC), is to be question by MPs on the select committee for culture, media and sport on Tuesday as part of a review of government proposals to improve gambling regulation. – Guardian
Labour would use artificial intelligence to help those looking for work prepare their CVs, find jobs and receive payments faster, according to the party’s shadow work and pensions secretary. Jonathan Ashworth told the Guardian he thought the Department for Work and Pensions was wasting millions of pounds by not using cutting-edge technology, even as the party also says AI could also cause massive disruption to the jobs market. – Guardian
The boss of National Grid has complained that it takes a decade to build a new power line in an attack on planning red tape. John Pettigrew, the company’s chief executive, said that Britain’s planning rules add seven years of delays to the construction time for cables. His warning comes amid ongoing rows over delays in connecting new wind and solar farms to the UK’s electricity grid, which are threatening the Government’s target of making the network carbon neutral by 2035. – Telegraph
At least 40 lawyers are set for a payday of over a million pounds each as British law firm DWF prepares to go private. London-listed DWF on Monday said it is in negotiations to sell itself to Inflexion Private Equity in a deal worth about £342m. The takeover would result in a lucrative payday for many current and former DWF partners who own shares in the law firm. – Telegraph
Consumer card spending rose by 5.4 per cent last month as grocery shopping on cards jumped by 9.5 per cent, the highest growth in the category for two years, though still below the rate of food prices inflation. According to data from Barclays, 67 per cent of supermarket shoppers said they were looking for ways to cut the cost of their weekly shop, with 32 per cent shopping at multiple supermarkets in pursuit of deals. – The Times
US close
Wall Street marked its first positive closing in four sessions on Monday, as market participants turned their eyes to the forthcoming inflation data and girding themselves for earnings season.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.62% at 33,944.40 points, while the S&P 500 rose 0.24% to finish at 4,409.53.
The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite added 0.18%, settling at 13,685.48.
In currency markets, the dollar saw modest losses against major currencies, last falling 0.09% against sterling to trade at 77.68p.
It lost 0.08% against the euro, making one dollar worth 90.83 euro cents, and slipped by 0.13% versus the Japanese yen, changing hands at 141.13.