UK pre-market stocks update – AstraZeneca, Anglo American, Fresnillo

At 07:28GMT, FTSE 100 futures are trading higher by 0.7% at 7384.5.

In FX markets, GBP/USD is trading at 1.3420, EUR/GBP is trading at 0.8421. The US Dollar Index is flat.

Today’s calendar highlights include Eurozone M3 Money Supply, US Trade Balance, Pending Home Sales, Crude Oil Inventories.

Coronavirus
Daily COVID cases in England hit another record high of 117,093 over the festive period but the surge in cases has, so far, not led to a similarly large increase in hospital admissions. The government has so far refrained from introducing new restrictions in England on hospitality and large events.

Stocks
AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) – Closed global development and commercialisation deal with Ionis Pharmaceuticals for eplontersen. The upfront payment from AstraZeneca to Ionis is $200 million. AstraZeneca will make additional conditional payments of up to $485 million following regulatory approvals. It will also pay up to $2.9 billion of sales-related milestones, plus royalties in the range of low double-digit to mid-twenties percentage depending on the region.

Anglo American (LON:AAL) – Held preliminary discussions with Vale about the possibility to jointly develop Vale’s Serpentina iron ore resource that is contiguous to Anglo American’s integrated Minas-Rio iron ore operation in Brazil.

Fresnillo (LON:FRES) – Provides update on Juanicipio project. The team delivered the project for plant commissioning on schedule. However, the ‘Comisión Federal de Electricidad’, the state-owned electrical company, has notified Fresnillo that approval to complete the tie-in to the national power grid cannot yet be granted and the mill commissioning timeline will therefore be extended by approximately six months.

Diversified Energy Company (LON:DEC) – Closed the sale of its predominantly undeveloped Haynesville acreage in Texas for a total cash consideration of approximately $67.4 million.