FTSE 100 Live: Retail sales inch up; Segro ups dividend
Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog.
The FTSE 100 took a breather from its blistering record run on Thursday after a major stock tumble at British Gas owner Centrica led the index into the red.
Centrica shed over five per cent after telling markets it would hit pause on its share buybacks in order to beef up its infrastructure portfolio.
Defence firms were also once again on the march with BAE Systems gaining 2.5 per cent and Babcock 1.5 per cent.
The spike came as tensions flared as potential military action in Iran came into focus.
President Donald Trump handed a firm warning to Tehran to strike a “meaningful” deal otherwise “bad things happen”.
He told the inaugural meeting of his new ‘Board of Peace,’ that Washington “may have to take it a step further” without any agreement, adding: “You’re going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days.”
The moves helped lift the price of oil to $71.71 a barrel on Thursday afternoon from $69.62 the day prior on Wednesday. BP climbed two per cent following the move and Shell 0.5 per cent.
Will the FTSE 100 shrug off any more tensions and get back to its winning ways to end the week?
We’ll be bringing you the top news and analysis of the morning.
In the meantime, here’s a few of our top stories from yesterday:
- British Gas owner shares tumble after buyback was paused
- US markets rally as tech stocks look to boost AI capabilities
- Starmer orders tech giants to delete abusive content within 48 hours
- Rachel Reeves warned ‘dysfunctional’ fiscal rules are hammering economy
- What does the Schroders acquisition mean for Cazenove Capital?
- New EV charges threaten fragile consumer confidence
- Law firms exposed as legal AI giants on poaching mission of tech talents