Closing summary
The Russian rouble has strengthened to around 93 against the dollar in a volatile week, as markets wait for more measures from the authorities to stabilise the currency.
The Bank of Russia’s 350-basis-point rate hike on Tuesday, to 12%, at an emergency meeting appeared to have only a limited effect. The day before, the rouble had slid through the symbolic 100 threshold to nearly 102 per dollar.
Analysts said more measures may be needed to return the rouble to the 80-90 range authorities have deemed acceptable. It is currently trading at 93.6 per dollar, up 1% on the day.
The Russian business daily Vedomosti and Bloomberg News reported that Moscow will not introduce capital controls for now, which would restrict the movement of capital, and instead prepare recommendations for exporters to coax them into surrendering more of their foreign revenues to help stabilise the rouble.
Following a meeting yesterday between president Vladimir Putin and top officials, authorities are now crafting informal measures of capital control, the news outlets reported.
Stock markets are in the red, with BAE Systems one of the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 index in London, down 4%.
The shares fell after BAE, Britain’s biggest weapons manufacturer, said it had agreed to buy the US space technology company Ball Aerospace for $5.6bn (£4.4bn), in one of the largest takeovers by a UK company this year.
The FTSE 100 defence company said the purchase of the Colorado-based business would help it to expand in technologies that were US defence priorities.
The deal comes amid a surge in spending on global military and spying technology prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It also follows the US setting up a separate arm of the military, space command, to try to keep up with China.
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Thank you for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow. Take care – JK
Updated
Wilko's future in limbo as bid deadline passes
My colleague Sarah Butler has the latest on Wilko.
The future of Wilko’s 12,500 staff hung in the balance on Thursday as they waited to hear whether a serious bidder for the budget retail chain had emerged.
Interested parties in the household goods retailer, which has 400 stores, had until Wednesday night to put forward their best offers for the company that called in administrators last week as it faced running out of cash.
It is expected that dozens, if not hundreds, of Wilko stores will have to close because a bid for the whole group as a going concern is unlikely to have been made, say industry insiders.
However, the full chain is expected to continue to trade into next week as talks on parcelling up the group’s assets are expected to drag on. Administrators are negotiating with potential suitors, including Poundland, B&M, Primark and Home Bargains, for groups of up to 50 stores each.
