Updates from Dixons Carphone, Polymetal International and BG Group

The FTSE 100 continued its steady rise on Friday, hopeful that leaders were still able to thrash out a deal. The index climbed almost 92 points to 6,673.3 with StandardLife surging more than 4.2% to 452.30p and St James'sPlace up 3.8% to 952p. Travel player TUI AG also continued to put on weight, up 3.6% to 1077p. Losers included ARM Holdings, sinking almost 3% to 1015p.

Stateside, the Dow put on 211 points to 17,760, a 1.2% climb. UnitedhealthGroup and Visa saw the biggest climbs, up 2.3% and 2%. After negotiations right through Sunday night Greek-eurozone deadlock remains.

A subdued day on the corporate reporting front. The Greek-eurozone debt clash appears to have spurred a consumer spending binge in Greece; the Greek division ofDixons Carphonehas seen a surge in sales as consumers attempt to dodge more currency and taxation uncertainty.

Chief exec Seb James admitted the Greek spending was "a bit weird", quoted in the Telegraph, though similar spending patterns were also taking place on new cars in anticipation of possible new taxes, according to other reports.

On home turf Dixons Carphone is likely to confirm this week that profits have slipped following the costs of its mega-merger last year when Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse agreed a £5.2bn union.

We take a look next at Polymetal International which says it has snapped up a 100% interest in the company holding the licence for the Primorskoye silver-gold property located in the Magadan region of Russia, from Decamor Investments Limited.

The deal includes an initial consideration of US$4.5m payable by issuing 533,301 new Company shares, or 0.1% of Polymetal's increased ordinary share capital.

"We have expanded our portfolio of near-mine advanced exploration projects," said Vitaly Nesis, Group CEO of Polymetal. "We hope to add within two years high-grade reserves within the economic transportation distance from both the Omsukchan concentrator and the Khakanja processing plant".

Finally, BG Group says it has loaded its first liquefied natural gas from a second production train at the Queensland Curtis facility in Australia. The first LNG from Train 2 set sail on the Maran Gas Posidonia it says.

"We have already," says BG Group chief exec Helge Lund, "shipped more than 1.5m tonnes of LNG from Queensland, and Train 2 will add significant further volumes and flexibility to our LNG shipping and marketing portfolio."

Recently Shell got approval from Brazilian regulators for the go-ahead of the acquisition of BG Group in a deal worth £47bn. There still remains other clearances from the EU, China and Australia.

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