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Stock markets rallied early Monday at the start of Budget week in the UK as fresh confidence in the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates next month gave a boost to risk sentiment, sending stocks on Wall Street to a positive finish on Friday, though the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all posted weekly losses. 

The FTSE 100 rose a touch off a one-month low but weakness in crude oil and defence names weighed on the index. Anglo American rose a touch after BHP walked away from a brief flirtation with buying its smaller rival in a bid to upset Anglo’s planned tie-up with Teck Resources.  

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BHP (BHP) has formally ruled out making a fresh takeover bid for Anglo American (AAL), drawing a line under renewed speculation that the miner was preparing another cash-and-shares offer for its London-listed rival.

The board confirmed the “Big Australian” was no longer considering a merger, after the Financial Times reported on Sunday that the company was back in the buyers’ circle and had made a new approach to acquire the company.

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Activist investor Saba Capital has set its sights on two new targets as it prepares the ground to launch its own exchange traded fund.

Speaking at the Sohn London conference last week, where hedge funds pitch investment ideas to peers, Saba’s founder, Boaz Weinstein, identified Workspace (WKP) and Pantheon International (PIN) as trusts whose share prices were trading at deep discounts to their reported net asset values (NAVs).

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While not exactly warning on profits, bid target TT Electronics (TTG) admitted that it needs “a significant step up” in the last two months of the year to meet market expectations, and for it to face no further disruption to deliveries.

Consensus forecasts for adjusted operating profit for 2025 stand at ÂŁ33.7mn, and to hit this the company will need to bring in ÂŁ12mn in the last few weeks, although ÂŁ2mn is likely to come from one-off sales as it closes its Plano site.

TT’s board also said trading for next year was difficult to predict, but that if activity levels remained similar then results will be “broadly” in line with this year.

Jefferies analysts said there appears to be “a healthy amount of risk” with the profit forecast. As such, it sees Cicor Technologies’ (CH:CICN) 150p per share bid “as a good outcome for TTG shareholders”.

TT’s shares dipped by 2 per cent to 133p.

IMI (IMI) has agreed to sell its Truflo Marine arm to Fairbanks Morse Defense for £225mn. Chief executive Roy Twite said the sale, which is expected to complete by the middle of next year, allows the business to focus on “the three powerful megatrends” of energy, automation and healthcare”.

Although the disposal will shave about 2 per cent off next year’s earnings forecasts, Fairbanks Morse is paying a multiple of 15-times cash profits and as Truflo was a standalone entity “we see it as sensible portfolio pruning”, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Fielding said.

UBS analysts said they expected the proceeds of the sale to be returned to shareholders.

Rosebank Industries (ROSE) chief executive Simon Peckham said “a lot has been achieved in the first few weeks” since its $1.9bn (£1.45bn) takeover of US-based Electrical Components International.

It has kicked off a two-year turnaround programme, which will involve closing around a quarter of its sites, plus a duplicate headquarters building in St Louis. Rosebank also plans to end “costly” factoring and supplier finance deals and bring down ECI’s net debt to $550mn by year-end, or 2.5 times adjusted cash profit.

ECI’s adjusted operating margin has nudged up by 60 basis points in the first half of the year to 15.7 per cent. The longer-term goal remains to double shareholder returns in three-to-five years, Peckham added.

Rosebank’s shares rose by 2 per cent.