Company insolvencies jump; Royal Mail takeover would face security review; energy cap to fall in July – as it happened

A closing down sale in the City of London this month Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

3.05pm BST

Closing post

Time to wrap up…. here’s today’s main news stories:

A takeover bid for Britain’s Royal Mail would be subject to “normal” national security scrutiny, says chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

The price cap on British energy bills are forecast to drop by over £100 per year this summer.

And in the City, the stock market is shuffling towards the weekend with the FTSE 100 index down 10 points (-0.15%) at 8428 points.

Updated at 3.07pm BST

2.54pm BST

China will cut mortgage rates and allow local authorities to turn unsold homes from developers into affordable housing, in a series of drastic measures by Beijing aimed at propping up the country’s faltering property market.

The People’s Bank of China said it would scrap the minimum rate of interest and reduce down-payment ratios to 15% for first-time buyers and 25% for second homes. It will also create a 300bn yuan (£32.8bn) facility to support local state-owned companies to buy homes at reasonable prices, it said in a series of statements on Friday.

The announcement is China’s biggest effort yet to restore confidence in its ailing property market after data released on Friday showed month-on-month house prices were falling at the steepest rate in a decade despite previous efforts to curb losses.