Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog.
We’re another day closer to the all-important Autumn Budget and the mood started on a sour note once more on Monday.
The FTSE 100 struggled to slip out of the red ending the day on a loss of 0.24 per cent to 9,675.43p.
Meanwhile, the economy had another damning diagnosis with consumer sentiment slipping back as households became more nervous about their finances.
The reading for household finances dropped from to 43.4 in November from 47.5 in October, far below the 50-figure mark for neutrality and the lowest reading since March.
Elsewhere on Monday, shareholders of two of the UK’s biggest infrastructure funds had mixed reactions after the firms reached an agreement to merge in a blockbuster £5.3bn deal.
FTSE 250-listed HICL Infrastructure and The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) said they had signed heads of terms on the business combination, in a move that will see voluntary winding up of TRIG, with TRIG’s assets transferred to HICL in exchange for the issue of new HICL shares and cash.
Advertising giant WPP was also dominating the risers to kick off the week after reports emerged that the embattled firm had drawn takeover interest.
The FTSE 100 group is said to be in the centre of deals chatter with interest from French rival Havas, as well as private equity firms Apollo and KKR.
It comes as the firm is poised to exit the blue-chip index in the next reshuffle following its stock losing over 50 per cent in the last year.
Here are a few of our top stories from yesterday:
Andy Haldane: Budget speculation is hitting growth
University tuition fee hike to prop up high inflation
WPP shares jump as embattled advertiser draws takeover interest
Hotels and shops to be hit by fresh Reeves tax raid
Tech tailwinds boost Polar Capital as AI bubble balloons