BP has put its North Sea oil and gas business up for sale.
The UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, on Thursday signalled he would be open to more extraction in the North Sea, although he did not make clear if that would mean new licences or allowing expanded use of existing wells.
BP, one of the biggest companies on the FTSE 100, said it was selling the North Sea business as part of a portfolio review under its new chief executive, Meg O’Neill. The American was appointed in December with a remit to refocus the company after a tumultuous period of three chief executives in three years.
The company said it wanted to direct the spending required on the North Sea to other places that could offer higher financial returns.
South Korea’s stock market has been going through a period of turbulence because of the AI boom. It continued on Friday, with the largest single-day increase in the benchmark Kospi index’s history.
The Kospi is up an astonishing 17.91% today. It fell 11% on Tuesday – just shy of the record 12.06% decline hit in early March in the first days of the Iran war – and 6% on Wednesday.
Global stock markets have been dominated in recent months by artificial intelligence companies. However, Korea’s stock market does not have the depth of the US, meaning its AI-exposed chip companies are even more dominant. The share price of the chipmaker SK Hynix soared 30% today, while Samsung Electronics was up 28%.
Economic uncertainty dampened UK house price growth in July as prospective buyers remained cautious about interest rates amid the Iran war in what should be the peak housebuying season.
House prices rose by just 0.1% in July from a month earlier, according to the lender Nationwide, while annual price growth slowed to 1.8% this month, down from 2.2% in June.
The UK’s biggest building society said the price of an average home edged slightly higher in July to £277,542, up from £277,484 the previous month. However, this is still lower than the average price recorded in May, when it rose above £278,000.
Today’s key events
• 10am BST: eurozone inflation rate (July; previous: 2.8%; consensus: 2.9%)
We’ll be tracking all the main events throughout the day on our business live blog …
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