THE DAILY BRIEFING

ON TRACK Engineer Babcock said it is trading in line with expectations, months after cutting fullyear sales targets. It works with nuclear power stations, militaries, emergency services and oil companies and is on track to deliver low growth. It has around £32bn worth of goods on order or being made.

DIESEL DOOM Trains running on diesel are a step closer to being ditched. Porterbrook, which owns and leases thousands of UK trains, is getting power-packs that convert certain diesel engines into hybridelectric trains, from Rolls-Royce, for a trial.

REVENUE UP Department store chain Harvey Nichols reported a 9pc rise in revenues to £210m for the year to March 31. Profits more than doubled from £7.3m to £14.7m.

BUS CRASH Transport group Stagecoach said revenues in its london bus division fell 2.2pc in the 16 weeks to August 18 after it lost a string of contracts. Bus revenues outside london were up 3.2pc.

RAIL DEAL After announcing 400 job cuts last week, British Steel has been hired for another two years to provide more than 200,000 tons of rail to Network Rail. TAKEOVER BACKING The board of John Laing Infrastructure Fund has agreed a £1.4bn takeover by a consortium of funds including Dalmore Capital and Equitix Investment Management, with the price set at 142.5p per share in cash.

GLOOMY OUTLOOK British investors are at their gloomiest since at least 1995, amid jitters over disruption if the EU refuses to agree a sensible Brexit deal. A Hargreaves

Lansdown tracker of trader confidence has fallen to its lowest level since it was started 23 years ago.

SHEFFIELD BOOST US airplane maker Boeing has hired local businesses to supply raw materials for its new Sheffield factory which will make components for jets.

TUBEMAN HIRED london Underground chief operating officer Steve Griffiths is to join London Stansted Airport in the same role.