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London’s FTSE 100 stood lower around midday on Thursday, retreating from recent record levels, while shares in WPP sank after the advertising firm cuts its outlook once more. The FTSE 100 index was down 58.89 points, 0.6%, at 9,697.25. The FTSE 250 was down 176.88 points, 0.8%, at 22,271.39, and the AIM All-Share was down 2.72 points, 0.4%, at 770.17. The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.6% at 967.97, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.9% at 19,346.55, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.4% at 17,866.47. In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.9%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was 0.2% lower. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday lowered expectations for a further rate reduction in December, stating it was far from a foregone conclusion. AJ Bell analyst Russ Mould said: ‘The Fed did announce an interest rate cut, but short-term Treasury yields jumped up on the back of the hawkish tone... The Fed chair likened the central bank’s current situation to driving in the fog, because the US government shutdown has prevented the release of key economic data. ‘Gilt yields jumped up in the UK too, as Powell’s comments reverberated across the Atlantic, highlighting just how sensitive our own government’s borrowing costs are to Federal Reserve policy.’ Focus will turn to the European Central Bank on Thursday afternoon, which is expected to leave interest rates on hold. Versus the dollar, sterling fell to $1.3176 at midday on Thursday, from $1.3236 at the time of the London equities close on Wednesday. The euro declined to $1.1598 from $1.1660. Against the yen, the dollar rose to JP¥154.12 from JP¥152.10. Stocks in New York were called to open mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was called down 0.2%, while the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq Composite were called up 0.1%. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury widened to 4.10% on Thursday morning from 4.00%. The 30-year yield stretched to 4.65% from 4.57%. In London, Standard Chartered shares were up 2.0% after it said it expects to reach its guided return on tangible equity in 2025 instead of by 2026, as it reported profit and non-net interest growth. The London-based, Asia and Africa-focused lender said pretax profit climbed 9.9% to $1.99 billion in the third quarter of 2025, from $1.81 billion a year ago. Looking ahead, Standard Chartered expects return on tangible equity around 13% in 2025 with progress thereafter, earlier than previously guided. When it had published its half-year results, it said it anticipated approaching a RoTE of 13% in 2026. Further, the company expects 2025 income growth towards the upper end of the 5% to 7% range at constant currency excluding notable items. It had previously guided it to be around the bottom of the range. WPP was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 and sank 14% as it said its performance in the year-to-date was at the ‘low-end of expectations’ and cut its outlook. The London-based advertising agency firm said revenue in the third quarter fell 8.4% to £3.26 billion, and was down 3.5% on a like-for-like basis. Revenue less pass-through costs slumped 11% to £2.46 billion, falling 5.9% like-for-like. The company said its performance in the third quarter was hurt by a ‘step down’ in its media planning and buying business WPP Media. The firm said it expects 2025 like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs to fall between 5.5% and 6.0%. The outlook has been cut from a 3% to 5% decline guided previously. WPP said it expects a headline operating profit margin of around 13%. Its prior outlook was for a headline operating profit margin fall between 50 to 175 basis points, excluding the impact of foreign exchange. Its headline operating profit margin in 2024 was 15.0%. Chief Executive Cindy Rose said the company will position its offering ‘to be much simpler, more integrated, powered by data and AI’ and ‘efficiently priced’ in order to improve its performance. On the FTSE 250 index, Computacenter was 3.6% higher as it said it performed strongly in the third quarter with continued momentum in North America, improvements in the UK, and a return to growth in Germany. ‘We continued to execute well in Q3 delivering a strong performance against last year. As a result, for the nine months to date, we are comfortably ahead of last year,’ the firm said in a trading statement covering the three months to September 30. The firm said while ‘we also face a tough comparative following a strong finish to 2024, we are encouraged both by our progress year to date and our committed product order backlog, which remains healthy in all geographies.’ The current backlog is ahead of both the position a year ago and at the end of the first half, it added. ‘As a result, we continue to expect full year adjusted operating profit in FY 2025 to be ahead of the prior year,’ the company said. TT Electronics shares jumped 60% after it backed a £287 million takeover approach from Cicor Technologies Ltd. Bronschhofen, Switzerland-based Cicor develops, and manufactures electronic components, devices, and systems. TT, which also manufactures electronic components, said the cash and shares offer values each share at 155 pence. Under the agreed terms, shareholders in TT will receive 100p cash and 0.0028 in new Cicor shares. On completion, it is expected that TT shareholders will own 10% of Cicor. Accepting the offer, TT Chair Warren Tucker explained that TT directors consider TT’s ‘insufficient scale has affected its growth and profitability, and has constrained its ability to optimise its portfolio.’ ‘In addition, the uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical outlook represent elevated risks given TT’s scale,’ he said. Gold fell to $3,975.10 an ounce at midday on Thursday, from $3,997.24 at the time of the London equities close on Wednesday. Brent declined to $63.89 a barrel from $64.52. Still to come on Thursday is the ECB interest rate decision at 1315 GMT. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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