Indivior settles some suboxone class action claims, Crest Nicholson lowers profit forecasts

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open one point lower on Monday, having closed down 0.65% on Friday at 7,262.43.

Stocks to watch

Addiction treatment specialist Indivior announced on Monday that its US division has settled claims made by the end payor class in the Suboxone antitrust litigation. The FTSE 250 company said it expected to pay $30m, which would be deducted from a reserved $188m for the litigation. Meanwhile, Indivior US was preparing for a 30 October trial related to other claims, but remained open to a settlement there as well.

House builder Crest Nicholson lowered annual profit forecasts after a worsening of the housing market amid rising inflation and interest rates. The company said it expected annual profits to be around £50m in a “challenging” market, down from prior forecasts of £73m, but predicted a fall in interest and inflation rates over the medium term. "Against a backdrop of persistently high inflation and rising interest rates, trading conditions for the housing market have worsened during the summer of this year," the company said.

Newspaper round-up

Airlines that break the law by not helping customers when flights are delayed or cancelled should be fined, consumer rights groups and online travel agents have said. In a letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, the consumer rights group Which? and leading online travel agents called for the aviation regulator to be given more powers to act amid flight cancellations. – Guardian

One of Britain’s most powerful charities, the National Trust, has hit back at pressure to cut ties with Barclays bank over environmental concerns. The trust, which acts to conserve more than 780 miles of coastline and 500 historic properties, claims that it can wield influence within the banking sector as a whole and does not need to ditch the global bank as a supplier. – Guardian

Buying has become more expensive than renting for the first time in 13 years for would-be homeowners. First-time buyers now have to pay an extra £122 per month on a mortgage compared to if they rented the same property – an extra £1,500 per year, analysis shows. – Telegraph

Listed companies could be allowed to extract as much as £50 billion from their traditional staff pension schemes if the government goes ahead with a radical reform floated in the Mansion House speech last month. The dramatic shift in gilt yields in the past two years has catapulted many traditional workplace pension schemes from serious deficit into healthy surplus, raising hopes among some companies that they might be able to access the excess assets in them. – The Times

Asking prices on Rightmove are falling at the fastest rate since the summer of 2018 as sellers become more “realistic” valuing their homes. The average asking price of new properties listed on the online property portal have fallen by 1.9 per cent this month to £364,895 in the biggest monthly fall since August 2018. On average, asking prices on Rightmove are 0.1 per cent lower than they were at this time a year ago, the first annual dip since 2019. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street closed in a mixed state on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.08% at 34,500.66.

The S&P 500 lost 0.02% to 4,369.71, and the Nasdaq Composite was off 0.2% at 13,290.78.