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No quarter needs to be given over changes to reporting: National Grid is the second big company to abandon quarterly reporting after the reform. The power utility’s move deserves applause, as does the deregulatory impulse that inspired it. Companies that follow the lead of United Utilities and National Grid will help lengthen City time horizons and promote “slow money”, as Legal & General’s Nigel Wilson describes long-term investment. Mandatory quarterly reporting implies three months is a meaningful period of activity. For many businesses it is not. Half year and full year results frame their endeavours better. Large property companies could easily abandon quarterly reporting too. British Land, which delivered a short form IMS on Tuesday, is contemplating doing so. Three-monthly and nine-monthly numbers no longer contain the net asset value figure that is the litmus test of a real estate group’s performance. Whoops of triumph at buying, selling or letting a big building can be vented in ad hoc press releases. Many stock analysts (and some City columnists) will privately mourn a decline in quarterly statements. There will be fewer opportunities for brokers to assail clients with notes containing such jargon as “BigCo has a £16 million Q3 ebitda beat, so upgrading to FY15 adj EPS of 10p.” Too often the researcher resembles a man minutely describing a patch of hide, but ignorant what animal it belongs to. Step back, Sir. You will find you had your nose pressed against a rhinoceros.

Vitol to develop $7 billion oil and gas project in Ghana with ENI: Vitol, one of the world’s leading commodities traders, is to develop a $7 billion offshore oil and gas project in Ghana with ENI, the Italian energy group.

At 0430GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 1.23% or $0.61 lower at $48.99 per barrel ahead of the Energy Information Administration weekly oil inventory data to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract climbed 2.99% or $1.44, to settle at $49.60 per barrel, after OPEC’s Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri announced that crude oil prices could reach $200 a barrel if fresh investment in oil production was curtailed. Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute stated that crude oil stockpiles rose 12.7 million barrels last week.

Tekcapital Plc (TEK.L) Announced that it has acquired the exclusive worldwide license from the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture for a new, patent pending coating for baked products that imparts the attributes of fried foods. The invention is an improved composition and process to bring liquid oil into a powdered or wet batter coating for food products. This reduces the fat content in the finished product by approximately 60%, thus enabling baked products to successfully substitute for higher fat content fried foods. This process can be incorporated into existing coating lines without modification and uses all commercially available products. Initial tests have shown that coated products, when baked, have the taste, texture and appearance of fried products. The Directors believe that this technology represents an important IP opportunity with the potential for mass market adoption via out-licensing.

Starbucks has been urged to live up to its promise to pay more taxes after boasting about the turnaround of its UK business and an 82% rise in global profits, The Times reported. The Seattle-based coffee chain said that its net profit hit $983.1 million in the 13 weeks to December 28. The paper also said that the amount of tax handed to the UK government in 2014 has not been disclosed.

Britain's construction companies will need an extra 224,000 workers over the coming five years as growth returns to the industry across the whole country for the first time since the financial crisis, said The Telegraph. The prediction comes in the Construction Industry Training Board's (CITB) annual survey of the sector's health, which also forecasts annual year-on-year growth of 2.9% out to 2019, according to the paper.

Industry potential According to the World Health Organization "Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health. Overweight and obesity are leading risks for global deaths. Around 3.4 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. In addition, 44% of the diabetes burden, 23% of the ischaemic heart disease burden and between 7% and 41% of certain cancer burdens are attributable to overweight and obesity. More than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight. Of these overweight adults, over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese. Overall, more than 10% of the world's adult population is obese. The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. Globally, there has been: an increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat; and an increase in physical inactivity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization." The Directors believe that the new technology has the potential to enable consumers who enjoy fried foods to benefit from a food that has the taste, texture and appearance of fried food, but has a much lower fat concentration, thereby facilitating a healthier diet which is believed to protect against obesity and obesity related diseases. IMHO; the company has acquired a technology which may well appeal to any of the top 10 global fastfood players or any major European/North American companies who sell fried food such as Donuts for instance. In the medium term; the prospects of commercialising this technology could be greater than current market capitalisation in terms of shareholder value creation.

The residential property sales market continues to be subdued in central London, with volumes consistent with those seen in late 2012 and early 2013. Despite Q4 sales commission being down 25.7% on the comparative period last year when the London sales market was operating at its highest level since 2008, full year sales commission of £70m was 3.6% up on prior year. As indicated in our October 2014 Interim Management Statement, we do not anticipate a recovery in sales volumes until after the General Election in May.

Giant cuts value of North Sea portfolio: A Japanese trading giant has said it expects to slash the valuation of its North Sea portfolio by around £340 million in response to the oil price slump and cost increases in the area. Technology firms target oil and gas sector: Shares in Arria NLG have surged 53% after the company, whose reporting tools are based on research from Aberdeen University, said it will develop products for the oil and gas industry with IBM.

WYG shares jump on possible sale: Shares in Yorkshire-based project management and technical consultancy group, WYG, jumped more than 10% as it announced a strategic review that effectively hoisted the for-sale sign. In the most recent set of results announced last December, WYG reported adjusted pretax profits up 35% to £1.9 million and a 10% increase in the order book to £95.5 million for the six months ended September. The order book for the U.K. alone increased by 28% on a year earlier to £50 million. The consultancy group was awarded a police training contract in Libya last year and believes there are greater opportunities for growth across Europe and the Middle East. The past year has seen WYG involved in frenetic bidding activity: 11 major consultancy frameworks are in the process of being renegotiated. Decisions on seven of them have so far been announced and WYG has been appointed to them all. The company is the incumbent on three of the remaining four which are still to be decided. The company returned to paying dividends by announcing a 0.5p final dividend last year. Questor advised buying the shares last year (115p, June 3) and they are largely unchanged from then. WYG will need cash to put all its new contracts into place and this will increase risk. That said, those who bought shares should wait and see what comes out of the review. WYG at 116p+11p. Questor Says “Hold”.

Petra Diamonds warns on falling prices: Petra Diamonds has warned that profits for the year ahead will be lower than expected as prices for rough diamonds fall. Johan Dippenaar, Chief Executive, said the prices for rough diamonds have been hit by banks tightening lending to the sector. The company added that they don’t expect a quick recovery in prices and downgraded their full year diamond price expectations for the Cullinan mine by 14% from $152 a carat, to $130 a carat. Petra Diamonds had been expected to make pretax profits of $182 million (£121 million), on revenue of $341 million, giving earnings per share of 20 cents (13.3p) for the year ended June. But the company now expects to fall short of those profit targets and said that diamond production was down 2% to 1.6 million carats, from 1.63 million carats in the first half of last year. However, the mining company nudged up its full year diamond production target from 3.2 million carats to 3.3 million carats. Petra is embarking on huge expansion projects at the Finsch and Koffiefontein mines, as well as Cullinan, to extend production for the foreseeable future. Total capital expenditure in the first half increased to $125.2 million, from $85.3 million last year. Questor previously recommended buying (117½p, September 17, 2013) and shares are up 46% since then. We downgraded that advice to a hold last year (197p, September 19) as the company warned about falling diamond prices. On this update, the balance sheet is looking strong and the dividend is welcome, but with diamond prices still falling we think it prudent to sit tight and wait. Petra Diamonds at 165.2p-15.3p. Questor Says “Hold”.

Opec warns of $200 oil without investment despite recent slump: Oil is in danger of rebounding to levels of $200 per barrel unless billions of dollars are invested into developing new fields despite the pressure on oil companies to make deep cutbacks in response to falling prices, the head of Opec has said.

Rough with the smooth: Diamonds are good at calling market peaks. Damien Hirst’s attempt to sell a sparkler-studded skull entitled “For the Love of God” for £50 million in 2007 marked the dying days of the noughties credit cycle. Similarly, the discovery of a rare 122 carat blue diamond by Petra Diamonds last summer may now be interpreted as a turning point for the business and the wider diamond market. But like the Brit artist, Petra could only manage a partial sale. It retained a 15% equity share in the rock. The company receiving $23.5 million for the balance, a figure incorporated into six-month numbers on Monday, along with a warning that rough diamond prices have softened. Petra believes the price wobble is temporary. But some of its reassurances can be deconstructed to support a gloomier case. If lending to gem polishers is weak, it may reflect pessimism towards their collateral, rather than a hiccup in liquidity. If a predictable seasonal gem glut is also to blame, Petra’s share price should not have dropped 8.7%.

Sands’ time runs slowly: Standard Chartered plans to replace Chief Executive Peter Sands this year. That will seem a leisurely timetable to some. The peppery bank Boss has been under pressure since StanChart was fined $667 million by U.S. regulators for sanctions busting in 2012. Then there is the question of replacing Mr Sands. Office Angels does not supply bank Chief Executives. Otherwise it would send a temp round on Thursday morning, armed with bright questions about total loss-absorbing capacity and the location of the photocopier. The fall of Mr Sands in City esteem has involved revisionism on a par with Trotsky’s transition from revolutionary hero to enemy of the people. An acclaimed Asian expansion backfired due to unhelpful regulation in Korea and bad loans. But incoming Bosses and their media minders now habitually find skeletons in the closet of the dear departed’s corner office, even if they have to plant them. For many FTSE 100 Chief Executives, the question is not whether their record will be reinterpreted negatively — that is a foregone conclusion — but whether they can get out before the process has begun.

U.K. utilities: populist power: SSE is the latest U.K. energy company to give a gift to customers — 4.1% lower gas prices from 30 April and an extension of the electricity price freeze. The cuts range between 3.5 and 5%, far less than the over 20% fall in forward prices for wholesale power, coal and natural gas since November. Wholesale energy prices make up only half of the retail price and given that companies hedge their supply, the benefit to the power providers comes slowly. Explaining this to politicians must be one of the great pleasures of running a power company. SSE has also promised to raise its dividend at least in line with retail price index inflation, in spite of falling consumption and fewer customers. The company has made progress on cost savings and free cash flow has covered dividends for the past five years. SSE’s dividend yield of 6% is in line with that of Centrica, the parent company of British Gas. The high yields reflect some expectation of a dividend cut — which, with an election 100 days away, is reasonable. The CMA plans a provisional report this summer. While the dividend is appealing (especially combined with a price/earnings ratio of just 13), political and regulatory overhang mean the shares are a gift only for risk-seekers.

Ministers impose curbs on fracking: Ministers have imposed a series of Labour demands on the U.K.’s fracking industry, in a last-minute move to avert a House of Commons defeat and pave the way for the development of shale oil and gas across Britain.

At 0430GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.33% or $0.16 higher at $48.32 per barrel ahead of the American Petroleum Institute weekly oil inventory data to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract declined 1.29% or $0.63, to settle at $48.16 per barrel, after OPEC’s Secretary-General, Abdalla El-Badri revealed that there was an additional oil supply of 1.5 million barrels per day. Meanwhile, he stated that oil prices could increase to $200 a barrel if producers avoided investing in new supply of oil.

Oil giant Shell set for further cost cuts: Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden will outline how the company plans to deal with the collapse in crude oil prices when he unveils its results on Thursday.

At 0430GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 1.05% or $0.51 lower at $48.28 per barrel, amid signs that Saudi Arabia’s new ruler would continue with the nation’s oil production policy. On Friday, the contract climbed 0.56% or $0.27, to settle at $48.79 per barrel, amid uncertainty over oil prices following the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulla.

Sports Direct was making headlines over the weekend as its plans to expand its UK business were revealed. The sports clothing and equipment retailer has been named as one of the companies planning to acquire Evans Cycles in a deal that would be worth £100m. According to The Telegraph, a source said potential bid rival Halfords has "categorically ruled out" such a move and that Sports Direct's success would depend on its ability to hold onto Evans's current key suppliers. Sports Direct is also reported to be planning to open a further 40 stores across Britain this year. The Express said the group had told its property agents to seek out potential store locations, quoting a source as saying the firm was "ramping up its demand for new UK sites". "It's a sign of its success and also the fact that it has a new fitness arm," the source added. The FTSE 100 firm currently operates out of 434 UK stores and has also undergone significant expansion across Europe during the past few years.