Royal Mail to cut deliveries under regulator proposals; Shell hikes investor payouts – business live
Royal Mail to cut deliveries under regulator proposals; Shell hikes investor payouts – business live
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It has started off as a fairly mild trading day across European stock markets. All the major indices have gained ground in early trading. But that has still pushed the Euro Stoxx 600 index to its latest record high. The Stoxx 600 reached 535.9 points on Thursday morning. It has risen from below 500 in mid-December as investors expect the European Central Bank to act to support the economy.
![[A table showing European stock markets all gaining on Thursday morning.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e06a7512e9492af967c8663e9e22be6e6e45b384/0_0_603_146/master/603.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The FTSE 100 is up by 0.1%, or eight points, at 8,566.3. That leaves it 20 points short of its all-time high of 8,586.68 from a week ago. Could the ECB also help it to a new record later?. Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of business, economics and financial markets.
Royal Mail is set to be allowed to deliver second-class letters only on alternate weekdays and not on Saturdays after the industry regulator announced a shake-up of postal service rules. Communications regulator Ofcom has proposed that Royal Mail would still be required to deliver first-class letters six days a week and the price cap on second-class stamps would remain, but the company will be allowed to make cost savings by cutting the number of days it goes to every address.
The changes could save Royal Mail between £250m and £425m each year. The cuts would be a boon to Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský’s EP Group, as it nears a £3.6bn takeover of Royal Mail’s FTSE 250-listed parent company, International Distribution Services.
