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Falling oil prices bite into Repsol profits: Spurred by an almost 50% drop in gas and crude oil prices and a interruption of production in war-torn Libya, Spanish energy conglomerate Repsol posted a first-half profit of €1.05 billion, down 20.6% from the same period in 2014

IHG and Starwood have held early deal talks: InterContinental Hotels Group has held early stage talks with Starwood Hotels & Resorts over a union to create the world’s largest hotel group, said two people familiar with the discussions.

Fracking could be delayed for up to two years across U.K. after Lancashire council rejects test drilling: Government plans to roll out fracking across Britain face delays of up to two years following a surprise decision to reject exploration for shale gas in Lancashire.

Boom in building of retirement homes: Housebuilders registered 2,337 homes in England specifically designed for older people in the first six months of the year, more than for the whole of last year

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.47% or $0.25 lower at $53.06 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract declined 0.13% or $0.07, to settle at $53.31 per barrel.

Shell reported Interims this morning and they certainly beat my expectations with a clean 2Q number of $3.8bn down from $6.1bn on 2014 2Q. Obviously upstream was sharply down but even that figure was offset by lower costs and depreciation charges. Downstream was a fair bit better than I had expected, beating Q1 and showing an improved financial performance and higher refining margins which we had all spotted. Gearing is a respectable 12.7%, down a touch on this time last year. On dividends, the company scotched the bogey of any idea of a cut by saying that it would be ‘at least maintained’ and as for the share buy back it stays at $25bn between 2017-2020, not something BP could afford. As one might expect costs are coming down everywhere, this year operating costs are down by $4bn with more to come and as for capex it too is down, by $7bn or 20% to $30bn. Lots on the BG ‘combination’ which is moving ahead steadily and of course cost savings are at the forefront, bigger than previously expected with $2.5bn a year from 2018 onwards and $30bn of asset sales between 2016-18. The deal will reshape the combined company and with its mantra of ‘grow to simplify’ will downsize numbers of but increase the size of international projects as it takes on fewer,higher value projects. Shell says that it will remain prudent through the downturn with the capacity to pay ‘attractive’ dividends to shareholders over the long term.

As it revealed 6,500 job cuts, Royal Dutch Shell also delivered a second-quarter adjusted profit of $3.8b that was well ahead of consensus estimates of $3.4bn. The oil major also kept its dividend steady at $0.47 for both A and B shares.

North Sea oil and gas companies still focused on job cuts: Most oil and gas companies in the North Sea continue to be focused on job cuts as they remain concerned about activity levels in the area, a survey shows.

Lone Star buys Wembley Arena Owner Quintain for £700 million: Quintain Estates and Development, the developer behind Wembley Arena, has been bought by U.S. private equity group Lone Star for £700 million

GSK: hype the pipe: Sir Andrew Witty, the confident Chief Executive of GlaxoSmithKline, speaks cautiously about the benefits of M&A. Last April, however, he agreed an asset swap with Novartis that would — bingo — “increase value for shareholders”. Sadly if you’d invested £1 in GSK shares then, you’d now have 84p. Visibility on the Novartis deal is harder. A small chunk of GSK’s revenues from new drugs came from ex-Novartis vaccines. In consumer healthcare — where GSK and Novartis are combining — the deal has squeezed profitability. Sir Andrew is suggesting that operating margins could triple. Perfectly possible in, er, theory. Vaccines and consumer health still account for only two-fifths of GSK’s revenues. So, even after offloading its marketed cancer drugs to Novartis, the company’s fortunes hinge on the pharma division. The asset swap has not changed the basic challenge: the pipeline needs to deliver.

Rightmove versus Wrongmove: OnTheMarket launched in January. Agents who sign up must advertise their properties on that site and no more than one other. Most agents choose to pull their ads from Zoopla, because it is a dispensable number two. That means Rightmove is the only place almost guaranteed to have a particular listing. On Wednesday Rightmove reported its market share — based on the number of pages that internet users viewed — had risen to 82% among the top four property websites. It now has 50% more listings than Zoopla. Its shares, already at skyscraper heights, added a storey. OnTheMarket says it can still overtake Zoopla and then outcompete Rightmove on price. But if estate agents want to tackle Rightmove’s pricing, they either have to offer something completely different (a Snapchat to Rightmove’s Facebook) — or wait for regulators to step in. Regulatory action, a distant prospect, becomes a tad more likely if Rightmove ends up a monopoly. Perhaps that is OnTheMarket’s real genius.

Total sells stake in North Sea gasfield to SSE in $900 million deal: French energy group Total is to sell a stake in one of the U.K.’s most promising natural gasfields to SSE, the British power generator, in a deal worth nearly $900 million that could herald a wave of North Sea asset sales

British American Tobacco beats forecasts as key brands grow: Shares in British American Tobacco rose on Wednesday after the world’s second-biggest cigarette maker beat expectations with a rise in market share for key brands and a slower rate of sales decline than its competitors

UK number of mortgage approvals for house purchases recorded a rise in June The Bank of England has reported that number of mortgage approvals for house purchases in the UK recorded a rise to 66.60 K in June, higher than market expectations of an advance to 66.00 K. Number of mortgage approvals for house purchases had recorded a revised level of 64.80 K in the previous month.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.6% or $0.32 higher at $53.70 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract climbed 0.15% or $0.08, to settle at $53.38 per barrel, after the US Energy Information Administration reported a decline of 4.2 million barrels in the crude oil inventory to settle at 459.7 million barrels for the week ended 24 July.

Is not only due to poor sentiment towards Commodities at the present time and worries about aggregate demand from China for the rest of 2015; it is also a reflection of falling Copper spot prices in the past 2/3 weeks although ; it was actually up this morning. Nonetheless; the investment community will wake up when the Resource Upgrade is announced at some point end of August/Early September hopefully as Market Cap. of £6m does not reflect the intrinsic NAV of KSK let alone other elements. In essence; the current valuation offers little down side risk in terms of risk/reward on a 12 months time horizon IMHO.

U.K. consumer confidence hits the high notes: British shoppers are at their most confident since September, new survey figures reveal this morning.

U.S. group eyes £600 million bid for Wembley developer: Quintain Estates and Development, the property developer behind London’s Wembley Arena, is reported to be in secret talks about a private equity takeover that will value it at more than £600 million

Sainsbury’s becomes U.K.’s second-biggest supermarket: Sainsbury’s has overtaken Asda to become the U.K.’s second-biggest supermarket as sales at the Walmart-owned chain continue to fall much faster than any of its major rivals.

House prices in England and Wales hit record high: House prices in England and Wales have climbed to a new record high after overtaking the previous peak reached at the height of the property boom, according to official data.