- FTSE adds 44 points to 9,472
- Index adds £50bn in a week
- Dow Jones adds 400 points
And that's a wrap
Well, what a week. It started off quietly, then came the fireworks... and, as so often, Donald Trump was holding the match. On Tuesday, he struck a surprisingly benign “most-favoured-nation” deal with Pfizer on drug pricing. Benign here meant good news, not punitive, and investors took the hint.
AstraZeneca, Britain’s biggest listed company, jumped 14% over the week, while GSK climbed 7%. With those two carrying serious weight in the FTSE 100, the index itself advanced 2.2% across five sessions. That may look modest on paper, but it represents nearly £50 billion added to UK blue-chip valuations.
3.00pm: Polar gets a boost
Sometimes the City falls back in love with a stock not because anything dramatic has changed, but because the mood music sounds a little better.
That seems to be the case with Polar Capital, the fund manager whose shares jumped 5% after Deutsche Bank raised its rating from “hold” to “buy” and nudged up its target price from 550p to 600p.
The catalyst is a modest one. Analysts reckon that in September, Polar brought in £100 million of net inflows, mainly into its technology strategies.
That is hardly transformative in the grand scheme of a £20 billion-plus asset manager, but it comes at a time when the industry as a whole is struggling to attract fresh money.
Deutsche notes that Polar’s assets under management have risen by about 15 per cent since June, helped by buoyant markets and, in particular, the rally in technology and artificial intelligence-linked stocks.
12:45pm: Wall Street set to open higher
The Dow Jones is expected to lead gains when Wall Street opens on Friday as investors focus on tech and AI stocks, shrugging off the US government shutdown as it enters its third day.
Ahead of the open, Dow futures are just under 0.2% higher, with those for the S&P and Nasdaq close behind, up around 0.1%.
All three indices finished Thursday at record highs as an OpenAI stock sale fueled a rally in AI names. The Nasdaq rose 0.4%, while the Dow was up 0.2%, and the S&P 500 added 4 points.
"There is no upsetting this bull run. Bear markets, let’s remember, are caused by recessions, and so far, the US economy keeps ticking along...even with a government shutdown, the stock market made new highs," commented Saxo Markets' Neil Wilson. "Partly that is because markets usually do look through shutdowns, partly it’s because this remains a late-cycle grind up with momentum and FOMO driving prices higher."
With September's non-farm payrolls data delayed due to the shutdown, after weekly jobless claims were also missed yesterday, economic data remain sparse. That's left investors focused on corporate news.
Ahead of the US open, the FTSE 100 is up 51 points at 9,478.56.
10.20am: London IPOs on the rise
AJ Bell's been crunching the numbers and reckons investors who piled into all 12 UK IPOs this year (before Beauty Tech's debut today) would be sitting on a tidy 10.9% average return—pretty much what you'd hope for from new listings.
"IPOs are typically priced 10% to 20% below their intrinsic value to help attract investors," said AJ Bell's Dan Coatsworth.
"The IPO 'bump' that often happens when a company lists their shares is effectively the reward for taking the risk of backing an entity that has yet to deal with the trials and tribulations of being on the stock market," he added. "Being listed might raise a company's profile, but it can also put pressure on management as their every move is watched by investors."
Coatsworth pointed out that the UK market's been gasping for fresh faces lately, with IPOs rather scarce on the ground. "It's therefore encouraging to see activity levels start to pick up," he added. "Investors are keen for new stock ideas, and two new listings have the potential to grab the market's attention."
Oh, and the Footsie is firmly in record territory, now up 58 points (0.61%) at 9,485.42.
9.40am: Footsie at new high
The FTSE 100 has shrugged off concerns about the US government shutdown, jumping 48 points, or 0.5% to reach a new high of 9,475.58, marginally eclipsing yesterday morning's high.
“News of OpenAI’s valuation reaching $500 billion, making it the world’s most valuable private company, helped fire enthusiasm in the tech sector and push US indices to new records yesterday," commented AJ Bell's Russ Mould.
"How long investors remain relaxed about this state of affairs remains hard to predict, but one worry is that it makes it significantly harder for the Federal Reserve to make informed decisions around interest rates."
9.15am: Smooth debut for Beauty Tech
Beauty Tech Group made a rare splash on the London Stock Exchange, raising £106 million at 271p per share and valuing the at-home beauty gadget maker at £300 million.
Shares popped 4% to 282.5p in early trading—a welcome bit of IPO cheer for the City.
The company flogs LED face masks and microcurrent gizmos for DIY salon treatments under three premium brands. Boss Laurence Newman said the listing gives them "financial firepower" to capitalise on the booming beauty tech market.
It's one of the precious few London IPOs this year, so investors seem keen on skincare meets Silicon Valley.
The FTSE 100 is now 45 points up at 9,472.21.
8.45am: 'Spoons under pressure
JD Wetherspoon PLC (LSE:JDW) shares slumped 4.3% in early trade despite Tim Martin's pubs posting a tidy 10% profit jump to £81.4 million and thrashing the competition for three years running.
The ever-quotable chairman took aim at Labour's tax policies, grumbling that higher national insurance, minimum wage hikes and new levies will whack the group for £67 million a year and stoke inflation.
Martin reckons pubs get a raw deal compared to supermarkets and wants the government to wise up.
Still, 'Spoons kept its 12p dividend flowing and like-for-like sales rose a healthy 5.1%—not bad for a chain under cost pressure.
The FTSE 100 is now 38 points higher at 9,465.75.
8.30am: Princes eyes London IPO
Princes Group—the company behind Branston, Napolina, Batchelors and that bottle of Crisp 'N Dry lurking in your cupboard—is heading for a £1.5 billion London float.
The 150-year-old business shifts nearly a billion cans a year and even took on Heinz in the baked beans wars. Now owned by Italian parent NewPrinces, it's aiming for the FTSE 250 while giving the City a much-needed shot of IPO optimism.
With £2.1 billion in revenue and improving margins, it's got ambitions to become one of Europe's leading food players—and London's markets could really use the boost.
8.15am: Early gains for blue chips
The FTSE 100 was fast out of the starting gate, jumping 30 points, or a third of a percent, to 9,457.86 in opening trades.
Just to recap, the index touched an intraday high of 9,475 in early trades yesterday, before retracing its gains to end the day lower.
Driving the gains this morning are Diploma PLC (LSE:DPLM), with a 4% gain, followed by gold miners Endeavour Mining PLC (LSE:EDV, TSX:EDV, OTCQX:EDVMF) and Fresnillo PLC (LSE:FRES), up 2.6% and 1.8% respectively as the gold price continues to creep higher.
On the downside, pharma giant GSK PLC (LSE:GSK, NYSE:GSK) has shed 0.8%, while consumer healthcare company Haleon PLC (LSE:HLN, NYSE:HLN) and drinks giant Diageo PLC (LSE:DGE) are down both down 0.6%.
Other European markets are also firmer this morning. On the continent, Frankfurt's DAX and the Paris CAC 40 are both up 0.4%.
7.45: Stocks shrug off US shutdown
It's not just the Footsie that has reached new highs this week; as mentioned earlier, the major US indexes all closed in record territory yesterday, driven by excitement over AI and shrugging of the second day of the US government shutdown.
"Yesterday brought no sign of an end to the impasse, with investors becoming increasingly concerned that it could drag on into next week," commented Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid. "For instance, the Polymarket odds of the shutdown lasting beyond October 15 is currently at 45%, having stood at 34% as we went to press yesterday."
With markets flying a bit blind on the data front, there's growing concern that the shutdown might pack more of an economic punch than expected. Case in point? We'd typically be diving into the monthly US payrolls numbers this afternoon, but the shutdown's thrown a wrench in those plans—along with yesterday's weekly jobless claims.
In terms of progress on negotiations, Reid noted that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called for a “clean continuing resolution” on federal spending in a CNBC interview and warned that the shutdown could lead to a hit to US GDP and growth prospects.
"Those comments came as Trump posted on Truth Social that he would be meeting with his budget chief to determine which Democratic agencies he would decide to cut federal spending on, and whether these cuts would be temporary or permanent, potentially threatening 'thousands' of jobs," Reid added.
7.15am: FTSE 100 set for firmer start
The FTSE 100 is set to open higher following a record week for the index.
On the futures market, London's blue-chip benchmark has been called 11 points higher, after hitting a new intraday high early yesterday before retracing its gains to close 19 points, or 0.2%, lower at 9,427.73.
Overnight, major US stock indices finished Thursday at record highs as an OpenAI stock sale fueled a rally in AI names.
The Nasdaq rose 0.4%, while the Dow was up 0.2%, and the S&P 500 was essentially flat.
The AI stock rally seemed to be sparked by an employee share sale at OpenAI, which would value the company at $500 billion.
Nvidia shares also reached a new all-time high, up nearly 1% on the session.
Asian markets are mixed this morning.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 has rallied 1.8%, the SSE Composite in Shanghai is up 0.5% but the Hang Seng is down 1.1%. Mumbai's BSE Sensex is unchanged and the ASX 200 in Sydney is 0.5% firmer.