Market Live Email
Antofagasta posts record FY earnings, Chesnara to acquire Scottish Widows Europe
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Tuesday 17 Feb 2026
(Sharecast News) - LONDON PRE-OPEN
The FTSE 100 was expected to open 1.3 points lower ahead of the bell on Tuesday, after wrapping up the previous session 0.26% higher at 10,473.69.
STOCKS TO WATCH
Copper mining giant Antofagasta posted strong top‑line growth and delivered record underlying earnings on Monday, driven by increased commodity prices and higher sales volumes. Antofagasta said revenue rose 30% to $8.6bn, driven by higher pricing for copper and by‑products such as gold and molybdenum, alongside increased volumes, while underlying earnings jumped 52% to $5.2bn, lifting the group's EBITDA margin from 51.8% to 60.3%. Pre-tax profits were up 53% at just below $3.16bn.
Chesnara said on Tuesday that it had signed a deal to buy Scottish Widows Europe, a Luxembourg based closed life insurance business, from Lloyds Banking Group for €110m in cash. The life assurance and pensions company said the acquisition would add €1.7bn of assets under administration and approximately 46,000 in-force policies to its business.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
UK bank bosses will hold their first meeting to establish a national alternative to Visa and Mastercard, amid growing fears over Donald Trump's ability to turn off US-owned payment systems. The meeting, chaired by Barclays' UK chief executive, Vim Maru, will take place this Thursday and bring together a group of City funders that will front the costs of a new payments company to keep the UK economy running if problems were to occur. - Guardian
Donald Trump has vented his fury against a green energy deal between the British government and California's governor, Gavin Newsom, a likely future Democratic presidential candidate. "The UK's got enough trouble without getting involved with Gavin Newscum," Trump said in an interview with Politico, using the derogatory nickname he reserves for Newsom. "Gavin is a loser. Everything he's touched turns to garbage. His state has gone to hell, and his environmental work is a disaster." - Guardian
Britain's solicitors watchdog has launched a fraud investigation into a law firm after its sudden collapse put hundreds of jobs at risk. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating potential fraud at PM Law and the possible misappropriation of client money. PM Law unexpectedly closed this month, leaving thousands of its clients and more than 600 of its staff in limbo. The collapse led to the shuttering of 11 of its high street law firms across Britain, which PM Law had acquired over the past three decades. - Telegraph
A partner at KPMG Australia was fined AUD $10,000 (£5,200) for using an artificial intelligence tool to cheat on an internal training course about the use of AI. The unnamed individual was made to resit the module after uploading training materials used for the course to an AI platform to help answer exam questions. - The Times
The private equity owner of Boots is looking at some of Morrisons' unwanted pharmacies as it considers expansion before a potential stock market flotation. Morrisons, the private equity-owned supermarket chain, has put dozens of its in-store pharmacies up for sale in a renewed drive to cut costs. The UK's fifth-largest grocer is understood to have been sounding out potential buyers on a site-by-site basis after concluding that a number of its pharmacies were not financially viable. - The Times
US CLOSE
Wall Street trading was closed on Monday in celbrating of George Washington's birthday.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
Article Archive
Free Membership To Digital Look
Discover the full range of Investor's Tools and Services from Digital Look - voted 'Best Research & Information Provider 2007' by Investors Chronicle.
En HeaderFooterDLYou are here: research