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Stock prices in London opened softly higher on Tuesday as most recent UK grocery inflation slowed, while progress on potential talks between the US, Ukraine and Russia continued. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has hailed ‘real progress’ made during the White House summit. Speaking after the event, Starmer described the talks as ‘good and constructive’. UK grocery price inflation eased a bit in recent weeks, numbers from market researcher Worldpanel showed. UK grocery sales in the 12 weeks to August 10 rose 4.5% to £35.74 billion from £34.2 billion a year prior. In the final four weeks of the survey, take-home sales at the grocers grew 4.0% annually. Grocery inflation stood at 5.0% in the final four weeks, slowing slightly from 5.2% in July. ‘We’ve seen a marginal drop in grocery price inflation this month, but we’re still well past the point at which price rises really start to bite and consumers are continuing to adapt their behaviour to make ends meet,’ commented Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel. The FTSE 100 index opened up 3.45 points at 9,161.19. The FTSE 250 was up 21.90 points, 0.1%, at 21,771.47, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.85 points, 0.1%, at 762.01. The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.1% at 918.12, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 19,145.66, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.1% at 17,079.45. JD Sports Fashion and Marks & Spencer topped the FTSE 100, up 2.7% and 1.6% respectively. Some miners also made gains, with Anglo American up 1.2%; Glencore up 1.2%, Rio Tinto up 0.7% and Antofagasta up 0.6%. However, Fresnillo lost 1.4%. Defence stocks BAE Systems and Babcock International, meanwhile, lost 2.1% and 1.7% respectively. On the FTSE 250, International Workplace Group dropped 15%. Its pretax profit for the six months ended June 30 fell to $12 million from $32 million. System-wide revenue, however, rose to $2.16 billion, although group revenue decreased to $1.85 billion. It also declared an interim dividend of 0.45 US cents per share. For 2025, International Workplace forecasts adjusted Ebitda of between $525 million and $565 million, although this is ‘likely to be towards the lower end of the range due to further investment in Managed and Franchise segment growth’. In smaller caps, Applied Nutrition climbed 9.0%. The company expects half-year results to be ahead of market expectations, with revenue up 24% on-year to approximately £107 million and net cash at the end of the year to total approximately £18.5 million. Market forecasts are for £100.0 million in revenue and £16.6 million in net cash. For the year ending July 31, 2026, Applied Nutrition said it now expects revenue to be ahead of current market guidance of £112.4 million. Also in domestic news, the UK economy was bigger than previously estimated at the end of 2023, according to revised official figures. The Office for National Statistics said revised data showed that the economy was 2.2% larger at the end of 2023 than its previous peak shortly before the coronavirus pandemic began. It had previously reported that the economy had grown by 1.9% over the period. The ONS said the improved data came after a regular update over how it calculates UK gross domestic product. In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 0.2%. The pound was quoted at $1.3519 early on Tuesday in London, flat compared to $1.3517 at the equities close on Monday. The euro stood at $1.1679, up against $1.1667. Against the yen, the dollar was trading higher at JP¥147.65 compared to JP¥146.96. In Asia on Tuesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was down 0.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was marginally down, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.3%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.7%. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China later in August, his security chief said Tuesday in New Delhi. Modi will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit opening on August 31 in Tianjin, his first visit to China since 2018, Ajit Doval said, in public comments at the start of a meeting with Beijing’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. During talks on Monday with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, Wang said the two countries should ‘view each other as partners and opportunities, rather than adversaries or threats’. In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.1%, the S&P 500 down 0.65 points and the Nasdaq Composite up 6.80 points. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.34%, narrowing from 4.35%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was unchanged at 4.95%. Brent oil was quoted lower at $65.98 a barrel early in London on Tuesday from $66.07 late Monday. Gold was quoted higher at $3,339.92 an ounce against $3,334.83. Still to come on Tuesday’s economic calendar, Canada has consumer inflation data and the US has building permits and the Redbook index. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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