Post Content
-
FTSE 100 down 47 points to 9,846
-
Iran and Israel trade attacks, US ceasefire applies only to energy sites
-
Results posted by Kingfisher, Bellway, PZ Cussons
The FTSE 100 has dived into the red after spending most of Tuesday’s first hour in positive territory.
Reports from the Middle East detail strikes from Iran on Israel in retaliation for earlier waves in the other direction. A military site in Iraq was struck earlier. Amazon said last night that its AWS services in Bahrain had been “disrupted” due to drone attacks in the area.
It is following similar moves by mainland European counterparts. While the Footsie is down 0.4% and the more domestically focused FTSE 250 is off 0.9%, Germany’s DAX has slipped 0.6% and France’s CAC 40 is just below flat.
Oil prices are creeping up. Brent crude stands at $102.3 a barrel.
Mining stocks remain the biggest drag for the London index, with Antofagasta, Anglo American, Fresnillo, Glencore and Rio Tinto all falling between 3% and 1%, as copper prices fall and precious metals flatten off.
Housebuilders and financials are also struggling, with Barratt Redrow and Persimmon both off around 2%, while HSBC and Barclays are leading a group of banks lower, down 1.2-1.7%.
A couple of bigger fallers.
Trustpilot shares have dropped over 10% after private equity firm Advent sold a £46 million stake at a discount.
And Bellway is down almost 9% after interim results that showed steady progress, with investors unnerved by the shockwaves from the war in the Middle East that have led to renewed mortgage market volatility.
All the FTSE 350 housebuilders are in red this morning, though it’s more likely to be a reflection of wider worries.
Bellway boss Jason Honeyman said: “The ongoing conflict in the Middle East heightens the risk of both inflationary cost pressures and an impact to customer demand, and we have already seen volatility return to the mortgage market.”
Nothing new there really.
“Notwithstanding this,” he said, “I am confident that our self-help and drive for capital efficiency will help mitigate the impact on our strategy to increase cash generation and shareholder returns.”
Downing Street has said it will not be issuing new oil and gas exploration licences despite a warning from energy trade body Offshore Energies that the UK “urgently” needs a greater supply of domestically produced energy.
A government spokesperson told the Guardian: “Issuing new licences to explore new fields cannot give us energy security and will not take a penny off bills.”
The spokesperson also noted that international markets set the price for British billpayers. “The only way to truly protect ourselves from these price spikes is to get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets.”
The FTSE 100 has opened 37 points higher at 9,931.
There’s a mix of sectors represented among the top risers: private equity investor 3i Group, medical devices maker ConvaTec, data provider RELX all up over 2%, then Autotrader, Experian, Rightmove and Pearson. Several of those names are shares that were hit by AI-related worries in the first two months of the year.
Among the fallers, miners and housebuilders are the main weight on the index, with Antofagasta down 2.6%, Barratt Redrow falling 1.5%, Anglo American and Persimmon down 1.2%.
A couple more updates.
Fevertree Drinks posted a 2% rise in full-year revenue to £375 million but the premium mixer brand saw profits diluted due to initial costs from the first year of its US distribution partnership with Molson Coors and a new environmental levy.
Soapmaker PZ Cussons said it expects full-year profit to come in at the upper end of its guidance range after continued strong trading through the third quarter.
Like-for-like revenue rose 6.3% in the three months to 28 February, a slight easing from the 9.5% recorded in the first half.
Kingfisher has rewarded investors by repeating its £300 million share buyback programme after it increased annual profits by 6% last year and eyes further improvements.
The FTSE 100 retailer, which operates the B&Q and Screwfix chains, made adjusted profits of £560 million in the year to 31 January 2026, above the middle of its guidance range of £540-570 million, driven by stronger sales volumes, wider profit margins and tight cost control.
As well as the new buyback, the full-year dividend was also repeated at 12.4p per share.
For the year ahead, the group is guiding for adjusted profit of £565-625 million and free cash flow of £450-£510 million.
While Iran’s denial of Donald Trump’s claimed peace talks has led to immense caution in markets, yesterday’s price action “suggests that investors are more afraid of missing a post-war rally… than of getting a few entries wrong”, says market analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya at Swissquote. “They continue to look for any hint of optimism.”
Meanwhile, central banks are “watching through a more critical lens”, she says, with European Central Bank officials, for example, warning that the current energy shock could turn into stagflation if prices remain high and volatile.
“The idea that Trump can act alone and shape outcomes doesn’t hold if the counterparty refuses to engage. Any resolution in the Middle East is also contingent on Iran’s willingness to de-escalate.
“The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively constrained, with only a limited number of tankers crossing the critical waterway,” she adds.
Trump’s five-day ceasefire was called just before US trading opened yesterday and is set to end toward the end of the trading week, something that has not passed many by.
“What happens next is anyone’s guess,” says Ozkardeskaya. “Market sentiment is fully dependent on war headlines and energy prices. Reactions are highly emotional: investors want the war to end, the latest selloff to be ‘the dip’, and to catch that dip. But uncertainty remains, and the TACO trade is only sustainable if Iran plays along. So we wait — watching both headlines and data.”
Today will offer a first glimpse of how global economic sectors are reacting to rising energy prices and escalating tensions in the Middle East as preliminary March PMI surveys are released for many major economies.
Early releases from Australia and Japan showed weakening in both manufacturing and services PMIs.
The FTSE 100 has been tipped to make a tentative recovery on Tuesday morning, with energy prices more becalmed as markets wait to find out if Donald Trump’s mooted peace talks with Iran have any weight.
Futures for London’s blue-chip index are pointing to a rise of 16 points in early trade, after yesterday saw an early 240-point loss swing to a 100-point intraday gain before finishing at 9,894.15, 24 points lower than it finished the previous week.
The swing followed President Trump saying he would postpone planned military strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure following what he described as “very good and productive” talks with Tehran, though Iran soon snapped back that there had been “no direct or indirect contact” with the US.
Nevertheless, US stocks rose strongly, with the Dow Jones and Nasdaq Composite indices both climbing 1.4% and the S&P 500 gained 1.2%.
Asian markets are in green this morning too, with the Hang Seng up 2.5% in Hong Kong, while the benchmarks in Tokyo, Shanghai and Mumbai are up around 1.4-1.8%.
Brent crude oil stands at just under $102 per barrel, down from $112 24 hours ago.