- FTSE 100 down 5 points to 10,603
- Wall Street headed for the red
- Shell and BP rise as oil climbs on Hormuz Strait's continued closure
- London index outperforming Continental counterparts
4.55pm: FTSE little changed
The FTSE 100 finished Thursday’s session down 5 points at 10,603 as investors eyed a precarious ceasefire in the Middle East.
“Another day of increasingly exasperated diplomatic exchanges over the exact scope of the ceasefire has resulted in a recovery for oil prices,” IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said.
“Both Brent and WTI are back to where they were a week ago. This reflects markets catching up with the reality on the ground, where Hormuz is closed, damage has still been done, and the full impact has yet to register.”
12.20pm: Blue-chips slip ahead of Wall Street open
The FTSE 100 drifted 37 points lower ahead of the New York open on Thursday, pulling back from positive territory reached earlier in the session as the initial euphoria surrounding the US-Iran ceasefire continued to fade.
The index had surged more than 2.5% on Wednesday, closing at 10,608, its highest level since March, after Donald Trump announced a two-week suspension of military operations against Iran just hours before his self-imposed deadline expired, conditional on Tehran reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a quarter of global seaborne oil flows.
Thursday's drift lower reflected a broader mood of caution, with Wall Street futures pointing to a softer open across the board as investors weighed the fragility of the truce and the prospect of protracted negotiations before any permanent settlement.
Dow Jones futures fell 223 points, or 0.5%, while S&P 500 futures slipped 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures edged 0.35% lower.
10.53am: Big small cap risers
One of the big risers in London today is ITM Power, climbing around 12% after announcing it had secured £86.5 million of UK government backing to build a 1GW manufacturing line for its electrolyser technology in Sheffield.
The package includes a £40 million strategic equity investment from Great British Energy and a proposed £46.5 million grant from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
ITM says the new line will underpin large-scale automated manufacturing in the UK, with total project investment expected to reach up to £120 million over three years, with commercial operation targeted in 2028.
Analyst Sam Wahab at Peel Hunt says the investment and grant "demonstrate the UK government’s commitment to promoting the UK’s technology and manufacturing capabilities in clean energy infrastructure, and represent a strong vote of confidence in ITM’s technology, in our view".
Elsewhere, tiddler Mercantile Ports & Logistics surged 175% after saying it is seeking to fully repay its debt and regain control of its Karanja terminal through the courts.
The group has secured funding support and will meet creditors this week as it pushes for a resolution to restore ownership of the asset.
10.17am: Energy prices climbing back up
Brent crude oil has climbed back 3% to almost $98 a barrel this morning, having sunk from above $110 to almost $90 a barrel yesterday.
EU and UK natural gas prices are creeping too, to €46.5 a MWh and 117.4p a therm respectively.
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"There is an air of renewed nervousness pervading financial markets after the euphoria which was initially prompted by the US-Iran ceasefire,” says market analyst Dan Coatsworth at AJ Bell.
He says the agreement already "seems to be fraying at the edges" and with talks on a lasting deal not set to begin until Friday and Saturday, "it’s understandable that investors are taking a circumspect view".
On oil prices, he says while there is still optimism that the fragile peace will hold, there is a gnawing awareness that "things won’t go back to a pre-war state in a hurry".
Energy infrastructure damage is likely to take months to unpick, while inflationary pressures unleashed by the conflict are only just beginning to feed into the wider economy. Even if energy prices eased significantly tomorrow, there is still likely to be a lasting impact."
Later today, the US inflation and growth will be in focus via the core PCE data and GDP readings, which might give a gauge of what shape the US economy is in to weather any ongoing turbulence, Coatsworth adds.
9.50am: BoE credit conditions data
Fresh Bank of England data shows lenders reported a small rise in the availability of credit to households in the first quarter, with mortgage supply increasing slightly.
Demand for secured lending picked up, while appetite for unsecured borrowing weakened. For businesses, credit availability was broadly unchanged, though demand fell across firm sizes.
Banks expect mortgage demand to rise further in the second quarter, alongside a modest increase in credit supply to companies, as borrowing conditions gradually ease.
9.19am: Ceres slides on downgrade
Biggest faller on the FTSE 350 is Ceres Power, down 8.6% after Peel Hunt slapped a 'sell' rating on the fuel cell technology developer.
The downgrade from 'hold' was based on analyst Sam Wahab's view that the shares reflect an overly optimistic view of the company's long-term growth prospects.
He cut his 2026 revenue estimates after Ceres guided to contracted revenue of approximately £45 million for the year before any new business activity, which the broker said fell short of prior expectations.
The note also pushed back on market enthusiasm surrounding Ceres's collaboration with energy company Centrica, saying the chief executive had confirmed that any near-term revenue from the partnership would be "modest".
8.52am: Stocks drop as Hormuz impasse lifts oil
The FTSE 100 has dropped into the red, down 19 points at 10,590, joining continental European counterparts, which all opened lower.
Germany's DAX is down 0.8% and France's CAC is 0.5% lower, with the pan-continental Euro Stoxx 600 falling 0.4%.
Losses are seen across sectors, with Ocado Group and Delivery Hero among the weakest, with pressure in defence, industrials property and travel, including Deutsche Lufthansa, IHG, Whitbread, Barratt Redrow and Persimmon.
"Ceasefire optimism has faded," says market analyst Kathleen Brooks at XTB, as the news flow turned negative from Iran and the rise in oil and gas prices is causing a "mild selloff" in European bonds and stocks.
She notes that only three ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to martime data, with around 800 tankers waiting on either side, "which suggests it could be a very long process to get ships flowing through the waterway [and] could keep a floor on the oil price for now".
She says the conflict in the Middle East will "loom large" in the emergent Q1 results season, which will lay bare how rising commodity costs are impacting corporate profits.
Delta Airlines reported earnings yesterday, saying it would take a $2 billion hit from higher fuel costs through to June.
"This could be a sign that investors may not get the usual sweeteners they expect this earnings season, such as profit upgrades and share buyback announcements, as companies manage the fallout from the crisis."
8.21am: Falls for Lloyds, Standard Life and Reckitt as shares go ex-div
It's a busy ex-dividend day for the Footsie, and this is reflected in the biggest fallers on the index.
Standard Life is down 3.1%, followed by Reckitt Benckiser and Howden Joinery, all with shares going ex-div today.
Other names on the list include Lloyds Banking Group, InterContinental Hotels Group, Centrica, Haleon, Rentokil Initial and Croda International.
The combined impact knocks around 14.3 points off the FTSE 100, the largest impact from Lloyds and Reckitt, reflecting the mechanical price adjustments.
8.14am: FTSE opens in green, led by oil giants
The FTSE 100 has opened slightly higher, up 12 points to 10,621, thanks to a rebound for oil titans BP and Shell, along with utilities and other defensives.
BP shares have opened 2.1% higher, with Shell gaining 1.1%, while petrol station owner and energy distribution group DCC tops the risers with a 3.2% gain.
Metlen Energy & Metals is up 1.6%, despite the Greek group's maiden full-year results as a London-listed company showing a loss.
Others high up on the leaderboard include SSE, United Utilities, National Grid, Vodafone, GSK, Imperial Brands, Prudential, BAT, Severn Trent and Admiral.
7.58am: IPO down to a trickle
The City's new listings market suffered a near-total freeze in the first quarter of 2026, with just two companies floating on the LSE.
One listing raised £8.8 million on the main market (iFOREX Financial Trading), while the other raised £4 million on AIM (Halo Minerals), the exchange for smaller growth companies.
The figures represent a stark reversal from the closing months of 2025, when issuance accelerated and market sentiment had improved significantly.
EY-Parthenon attributed the slowdown to two principal factors: a sell-off in sectors perceived to be exposed to AI disruption, which weighed on valuations for technology and software companies, and the conflict in the Middle East, which introduced broader geopolitical instability and raised concerns around inflation and consumer demand.
McCubbin noted that while headline market declines had been relatively modest, sector-level volatility had risen sharply, making near-term execution more challenging for affected businesses.
7.39am: Hormuz, Trump and talks
FTSE futures are the only ones in Europe pointing higher as oil prices creep up, because "several questions remain about the ceasefire" announced between the US and Iran, says Henry Allen, macro analyst at Deutsche Bank.
This has "taken the momentum out of the market rally overnight", he says, which is what has knocked Asian equities lower across the board after yesterday’s surge, whilst US and European equity futures have also stumbled.
So the Nikkei (-0.75%), the KOSPI (-1.61%), the CSI 300 (-0.64%) and the Hang Seng (-0.36%) have all fallen back this morning, and S&P 500 futures (-0.21%) are also pointing towards losses after a run of 6 consecutive gains.
Both the UAE and Kuwait said yesterday that their air defences had been intercepting drones from Iran, while Iran parliamentary speaker said three points of the ceasefire agreement had been violated.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard warned of a “regret-inducing response" if Israel’s strikes against Lebanon didn’t stop immediately and the Fars news agency said that the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz was halted because of Israel’s continued strikes on Lebanon.
Only a few hours ago, Donald Trump posted that US forces would “remain in place, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with" and if this does not happen the military action would be "stronger than anyone has ever seen before".
Collectively, says the Deutsche analyst, "that’s raised concern about how durable this ceasefire will prove, particularly with it only being a two-week truce."
Though compared to 24 hours ago, "the market stress has eased considerably, as the ceasefire news and hopes for a de-escalation pathway have created a lot more optimism".
The White House has said that Vice President JD Vance would lead a delegation to Islamabad, with a first round of talks scheduled for Saturday morning.
7.17am: FTSE 100 to get off to solid start, oil creeps higher
The FTSE 100 is set to get off to a solid start on Thursday as oil prices hover slightly above the previous day's lows as the crucial Strait of Hormuz appears to remain blocked in spite of the US-Iran ceasefire deal.
A gain of just over 50 points is predicted on the futures market for the London equity index, a day after it closed 260 points or 2.5% higher at 10,608.88.
Overnight, US stocks also rallied strongly, with the Dow Jones rising 2.9%, the Nasdaq jumping 2.8% and the S&P 500 climbing 2.5%.
This morning, Asian stocks have retreated slightly, with Japan's Nikkei down 0.6% and China's Shanghai Composite and India#'s Sensex falling 0.7%.
Oil prices have traded slightly higher overnight, with Brent crude up 2.1% at $96.81 a barrel.
Financial markets are far from out of the woods yet, following the two-week ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran, with whether the deal holds being a key variable that "could upend market sentiment", says market analyst Kyle Rodda at Capital.com.
"Already there are signs that the deal is tenuous. Israel, who reportedly accepted the ceasefire begrudgingly, intensified strikes in Lebanon while Iran continued to attack Gulf neighbours, with the Strait of Hormuz not truly reopened yet."