Jadestone Energy (LON:JSE) has announced the completion of works required to resume production from the Montara oil field. This restart follows an extensive maintenance and inspection shut down. Shares in the company have increased by a slight 3.24% following the announcement of completion. The decision to halt production at the Montara oil field was made in November. Jadestone Energy closed the asset in order to correct an extensive backlog of inspection and maintenance routines.

At the beginning of December, Jadestone Energy reported its progress which was being delivered on target.

Work has now been completed and the facilities are going through the final stages of pressure testing to ensure a safe restart of production. The facility should be able to operate without any major maintenance shutdown until 2020 at the very least. Paul Blakeley, President and CEO of the company, commented on the announcement: “I’m pleased that the shutdown of the Montara assets has been safely concluded, which now completes all overdue inspection and maintenance items which we identified during the initial weeks after closing the transaction with PTTEP. During the shutdown, Montara personnel logged more than 9,000 hours of work, all executed without a single safety incident. This is a testament to the calibre of expertise on the asset and the leadership we have now seconded into the Montara organisation, and a key early step toward embedding the Jadestone operating philosophy and safety culture on the asset. “In addition to resolving the regulatory non-compliance notices, which in our view now safeguards the integrity and reliability of the Montara assets, we have worked closely with NOPSEMA, the offshore regulator, to satisfy their concerns as laid out in Direction Notice 0732, and are waiting for their final support to a full restart of production.” At 14:53 GMT today, shares in Jadestone Energy Inc (LON:JSE) were trading at +3.24%. Elsewhere in the property market, UK house prices are growing at the slowest annual pace in six years. Indeed, latest property price statistics show that the UK house market has taken a pre-Brexit hit.

House prices dropped by 0.7% since November, making it the biggest monthly decline since July 2012. According to data from Nationwide, British house prices have taken a pre-Brexit hit. Compared to the same period a year earlier, prices rose by a mere 0.5%, compared with a 1.9% rise in November. Figures are well below the expectations of Reuters economists.

The annual 0.5% rise of UK house prices is the slowest increase in almost six years.

Nationwide has said it is expecting prices to rise at a “low single-digit pace” this year. Robert Gardner, Chief Economist at Nationwide, told Sky News: “It is likely that the recent slowdown is attributable to the impact of the uncertain economic outlook on buyer sentiment, given that it occurred against a backdrop of solid employment growth, stronger wage growth and continued low borrowing cost “The economic outlook is unusually uncertain. However, if the economy continues to grow at a modest pace, with the unemployment rate and borrowing costs remaining close to current levels, we would expect UK house prices to rise at a low single-digit pace in 2019.” Since the June 2016 Brexit vote, house prices have weakened. Jonathan Samuels, Chief Executive of Octane Capital, said “Brexit has smashed property market sentiment to smithereens.” “Borrowing rates may be low and the jobs market strong but a deep undercurrent of uncertainty is causing the vast majority of people to sit on their hands,” he continued. “What growth there is, is in the north, which hasn’t experienced the overexuberant price inflation of the capital and other areas of the south.” The average house price in Britain last month came in at £212, 281. This compares to £211,156 in December 2017. The 0.5% annual rate of growth is the slowest since February 2013. Prior to the 2016 Brexit vote, house prices were rising by roughly 5% annually, based on Nationwide’s index. Housing prices have considerably weakened since the UK decided to leave the European Union.

Co-op announced plans to open an additional 100 food stores in the new year on Thursday, as it looks to grow its convenience locations. The supermarket said it will also refurb 200 stores, creating some 1,500 new jobs. ”The right location and range tailored to fulfil the shopping needs of a community is a cornerstone of our approach, and there has been an evolution in how we choose new locations and innovate our offer,” The Co-op’s portfolio director Stuart Hookins commented. “This year will be the fourth consecutive year of opening around 100 new stores, and investing in a core convenience estate which has seen over four years of consecutive like for like sales growth.” Back in September, the grocery retailer reported a 10% growth in sales to £5 billion in its interim results. Co-op also reported that an increase on pre-tax profits to £26 million, up from £14 million in 2017. Nevertheless, UK supermarkets have been struggling as of late, with well-loved names like Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS) and Waitrose announcing the closure of hundreds of stores. Back in March, Marks and Spencer announced further 100 store closures, in a bid to restructure its business in the face of an increasingly turbulent trading environment for many high-street retailers. The Co-op brand was founded back in 1850. As of currently, the retailer has over 4,050 shop locations across the U.K. Currently, Co-Op is the fifth largest food retailer in the UK. It is behind the nation’s largest supermarket Tesco (LON:TSCO), followed by Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY), the second biggest. In recent years, British supermarkets have felt the pressure from the competition of cheaper retailers such as Lidl and Aldi, which have both progressively obtained a larger market share.

Aston Martin has started the year by searching for a new audit firm. Just three months after floating on the London Stock Exchange, the luxury carmaker is looking to replace KPMG in the next few months. KMPG, who has been carrying out audits for the group since 2007, has declined the opportunity to re-pitch for the work. Since Aston Martin’s £4 billion float on the stock market, shares have fallen by around 30%. Jasper Lawler, an analyst at London Capital Group, said on the group’s debut: “The first public listing of a British carmaker in decades has the kind of ‘dinner party’ appeal that few IPOs share. We think the iconic status of this century-old British motoring brand, coupled with its relative insulation against Brexit or trade tensions, make this listing a compelling proposition.” Aston Martin expects full-year sales for this year to rise to between 6,200 and 6,400 cars. As part of its expansion, new projects will include building an electric flying car and luxury homes.

The Resolution Foundation has said that Philip Hammond should raise £7 billion through changes to the UK’s wealth taxes. The UK’s leading think tank released a report ahead of the Hammond’s government spending review, with suggestions on how to finance public services with the increased demand from the ageing population. “Yes, this is politically difficult, but the good news is that relatively large sums can be raised simply by tightening up our existing wealth taxes and subsidies. That is how we protect our public services without placing all the burden of taxation on hard-earned income from work,” said the director of the Resolution Foundation, Torsten Bell. Five wealth taxes that can potentially be “tweaked” are entrepreneurs’ relief, council tax top band rates, inheritance tax loopholes, pension lump sum tax relief and Help to Buy Individual Savings Accounts. Adam Corlett, who is an analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said that tightening wealth taxes will be unavoidable as pressure on public services grows. “Britain’s wealth is undertaxed, and the wealth taxes we do have are in serious need of reform. There’s a strong case for scrapping council tax and inheritance tax altogether, and replacing them with proper wealth taxes that are more progressive and harder to avoid … [but] even without comprehensive reform of our main wealth taxes, loopholes can be closed, fairness improved and billions raised to fund the needs of an ageing society without hitting the pockets – or votes – of the majority.”  

Wizz Air reported a surge in passenger numbers of 18% for the month of December. The budget airline said passengers were up to 2.6 million, with load factor also up 1.3 percentage points to 88.8% during the festive period. In the rolling 12 months, Wizz Air passenger numbers were up 19.6% at 33.8 million while the load factor rose 1 ppt to 92.4%. The group also increased its capacity in December by 16.5% to 2.99 million, now serving an additional 14 new routes. Wizz Air is the largest low-cost airline across Central and Eastern Europe. Wizz Air is a constituent of the FTSE-250 Index. Elsewhere across the aviation industry, Ryanair (LON:RYA) also reported encouraging passenger numbers for the month of December. It reported a 12% growth in December traffic compared to a year previously, up to 10.3 million customers. Ryanair also said that it operated over 57,000 scheduled flights in December, with more than 81% landing on time. Whilst the Christmas period provided a boost to both airlines, in general, the aviation industry has been struggling amid increased competition and higher fuel prices. Earlier this year, both Ryanair and Wizz Air issued profit warnings, as industrial action weighed from air traffic control staff and cabin crew caused disruptions. Shares in Wizz Air (LON:WIZZ) are currently up 2.51% as of 11:35AM (GMT).

The rise of streaming is taking a toll on the CD industry, where last year sales fell by 23%. Data from the British Phonographic Industry has revealed the fall in sales, which is the biggest drop since the industry peaked in 2000. Kim Bayley from the Entertainment Retailers Association said on BBC Radio 5 Live: “Lots of us have changed the way we consume music and film, and more people are streaming from Netflix or Spotify.” “But I think we should remember that [physical music] is almost a £2 billion business. Even HMV has sales still of a quarter of a billion pounds, so that’s not a small business,” she added. In 2018, 32 million CDs were sold compared to the 41.6 million sold in 2017.