BUSINESS LIVE: FTSE slips as US stimulus threatened with veto

The FTSE is expected to head lower this morning as uncertainty over a Brexit deal grips the Christmas holiday period. Meanwhile, Asian markets mostly rose despite President Donald Trump calling the latest US Covid relief package a ‘disgrace.’

British Land has sold a 75 per cent stake in three buildings in London’s West End for £401million to Allianz Real Estate, as the Sheffield Meadowhall shopping centre and office owner divests its non-core assets. 

Pub operator Marston’s has said it will operate Brains’ 156 pubs in Wales in a deal that will save 1,300 jobs, at a time when the country is imposing fresh curbs to stymie the spread of a mutated variant of the coronavirus.