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Stocks in London were mostly lower but the FTSE 100 was in the green at Wednesday midday, despite blue chip housebuilder stocks falling after a higher than expected UK consumer price index inflation reading, which puts a November Bank of England rate cut in doubt. The FTSE 100 index was up 23.14 points, 0.3%, at 9,212.36. The FTSE 250 was down 81.71 points, 0.4%, at 21,751.55, and the AIM All-Share was down 3.65 points, 0.5%, at 759.57. The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.1% at 923.18, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.5% at 19,103.71, and the Cboe Small Companies was down 0.1% at 17,127.19. ‘The implications for interest rates of the higher than anticipated CPI...saw housebuilders foundations quiver given, in turn, what this might mean for mortgage affordability and availability,’ AJ Bell’s Danni Hewson commented. On the FTSE 100, for instance, Berkeley Group was down 1.7%. Fellow housebuilders Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey lost 1.4% and 1.3% respectively, and Barratt Redrow was down 1.2%. UK house prices, meanwhile, rose solidly in June with broad-based growth led by Scotland and Northern Ireland, Office for National Statistics data showed. Average UK house prices increased by 3.7% to £269,000 in the 12 months to June, picking up from a downwardly revised 2.7% in the 12 months to May. May’s figure was revised from growth of 3.9% before, partly reflecting a change in how new build inflation is assessed. By country, house prices rose 3.3% on-year in England, 2.6% in Wales, 5.9% in Scotland and by 5.5% in Northern Ireland. ConvaTec led the FTSE 100, up 5.9%, after the medical products and technologies firm announced a $300 million share buyback which Hewson said ‘proved a comforting balm for investors’. Anglo American was the worst-performing large cap, down 2.2%. The miner announced on Tuesday that it would seek damages over Peabody Energy’s ‘wrongful termination’ of its bid to acquire Anglo’s steelmaking coal assets in Australia. ‘Peabody in turn blowing up the transaction undermines a key plank in Anglo’s restructuring plan...It doesn’t help that selling these assets was seen as the simplest task, when compared with offloading its nickel, diamond and platinum operations,’ Hewson remarked. On the FTSE 250 Ithaca Energy was the best performer, climbing 8.6%. The oil and gas company’s pretax profit tripled on-year to $146.2 million in the second quarter, as revenue more than doubled to $746.4 million. For the first half, profit rose to $513.4 million and revenue increased to $1.45 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and exploration expenses increased to $1.12 billion. Ithaca raised its full-year guidance to between 119,000 and 125,000 boe per day from between 109,000 and 119,000. It also declared a 10.1 US cents first interim dividend per share, and confirmed its 2025 dividend target of $500 million. Premier African Minerals was the second-best performer on AIM, up 29%. The Zimbabwe-focused lithium company said outcomes of OEM plant testing at the Zulu project were positive, ‘to the extent that the plant is now able to run continuously as intended’. Also, the plant has achieved saleable concentrate of spodumene with grades up to 6.2% lithium oxide. ‘The recent rise in spodumene pricing is encouraging, with the potential to transition Zulu from its current position to sustained profitability,’ Chief Executive George Roach commented. In small caps, Costain lost 15%. The construction and engineering company’s pretax profit rose 7.1% to £18.2 million in the first half, despite revenue falling 18% to £525.4 million. Also, Costain more than doubled its interim dividend to 1.0p per share. CEO Alex Vaughan, meanwhile, said that ‘the improvements in market outlook and the group’s positioning and resilience underpin our confidence in delivering on our expectations for further progress in FY25 and FY26’. The pound was quoted at $1.3497 at midday on Wednesday in London, slightly lower compared to $1.3503 at the equities close on Tuesday. The euro stood at $1.1657, down from $1.1669. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP¥147.38, lower compared to JP¥147.75. In European equities on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.45 points, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 0.3%. The eurozone inflation rate was unchanged as expected in July, data published by Eurostat confirmed. The consumer price index was up 2.0% in July from a year before, in line with preliminary data published on August 1 and the same annual inflation rate as in June. This was also in line with the European Central Bank’s inflation target of 2.0%. CPI remained flat on-month in July, after rising 0.3% in June. Stocks in New York were called lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was called down 0.1%, the S&P 500 index down 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.1%. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.29%, narrowing from 4.31%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.90%, narrowing from 4.91%. Brent oil was quoted higher at $66.33 a barrel at midday on Wednesday, from $66.08 late Tuesday. Gold was quoted at $3,326.90 an ounce, higher against $3,325.33. Still to come on Wednesday’s economic calendar is US EIA crude oil data in the afternoon, followed in the evening by Federal Reserve minutes. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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