QinetiQ finance chief steps down, Grafton completes purchase of IKH

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 10 points higher on Friday, having closed up 1.25% on Thursday at 7,125.16.

Stocks to watch

QinetiQ Group on Friday said David Smith will be retiring as chief financial officer and stepping down from the board on November 30 to be replaced by Lightsource CFO Carol Borg. Smith joined Qinetiq in January 2017. Borg will start work on October 11 “to enable a smooth transition period”, the company said in a statement.

Building materials distributor and retailer Grafton Group has completed the acquisition of Isojoen Konehalli Oy and Jokapaikka Oy, or ‘IKH’, it announced on Friday. It said IKH is one of the largest workwear, personal protective equipment (PPE), tools, spare parts and accessories technical wholesalers and distributors in Finland.

Newspaper round-up

Ministers have drawn up radical plans to reduce carbon emissions that would increase gas bills and the cost of running a car by hundreds of pounds a year, The Times has learnt. The government is planning to introduce a carbon reduction scheme that could put up the costs of gas and petrol as part of an attempt to decarbonise the economy. - The Times

Up to five million Britons face being locked out of European holidays because their vaccines are not recognised by the EU's passport scheme, the Telegraph has learned. Millions of vaccines administered here do not qualify for the European Union’s vaccine passport scheme, because the shots were manufactured in India and are not yet authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). - Telegraph

Labour has narrowly won the Batley and Spen byelection, holding on to the West Yorkshire seat after a hotly contested campaign. Labour won 13,296 votes with the Conservatives recording 12,973, according to official results. Kim Leadbeater defeated Ryan Stephenson, the Tory candidate, by 323 votes. George Galloway, representing the Workers Party of Britain, came third with 8,264 votes. - Guardian

An American hedge fund has called on GlaxoSmithKline to consider an overhaul of its board and a sale of its consumer healthcare business. In an open letter to Sir Jonathan Symonds, the British drugs company’s chairman, Elliott Management made a series of demands and criticised years of “severe” underperformance and “under-management”. - The Times

Ireland has joined a rebellion against Joe Biden's global deal on corporation tax as it seeks to maintain the low rate that has made it an EU haven for tech giants. The country is among nine others which have rejected the deal, with Ireland's finance minister saying it was not in a position to join the agreement due to proposals for a global minimum tax rate of at least 15pc which have been championed by the US. - Telegraph

US close

Wall Street equities closed the first session of the new quarter in positive territory on Thursday, amid a flurry of data points.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.38% at 34,633.53, as the S&P 500 added 0.52% to 4,319.94 and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 0.13% at 14,522.38.

The Dow closed 131.02 points higher on Thursday, extending solid gains recorded in the previous session.

Thursday's primary focus was this week's jobless claims figures from the Labor Department, which revealed that first-time jobless claims retreated to their lowest level since March 2020.

According to the Department of Labor, initial unemployment claims fell by 51,000 to 364,000 over the week ending on 26 June.