Monday, 7 March: Brent crude looked set to surpass one month highs at almost $40/bbl as Asian equity markets were slightly down in overnight trade, and European equities opened in the red. The FTSE 100 was down 0.27% as investors took profit ahead of Thursday’s ECB meeting, and gold traded between higher bounds of $1263-1273/oz intraday.

Old Mutual, traded 6.10% higher at the time of writing as it responded to a report from broadcaster Sky News, claiming the company is planning a break up of its operations. Currently, the firm entails South African lender Nedbank, Old Mutual Wealth, its South Africa-based emerging markets operation, and its institutional asset management business. Old Mutual announced that “all options” are on the table for its strategic review. It has been pointed out a demerger could be for the best, as synergies relating to the South African business are quite weak, causing the stock to trade on a discount.

Investors lost faith in Just Eat, as its CEO and CFO placed large sell orders in late Friday trade, selling £12.5m and £1.7m worth of shares respectively. This selling action sent the shares down c. 6.00%, as Investors got wind, this put them off their food – sending the stock down a further 4.50%, rounding out a 10.50% fall for the online food delivery portal. This price action came in spite of a recent stock price upgrade from Canaccord Genuity, as it cited a strong position in its core market (UK) and elsewhere, along with easily secured commission uplift from restaurants.

At the close European indices were down with the FTSE 100 -0.27%, with the CAC 40 -0.32%, and the DAX 30 -0.46%.