29th Oct 2025 12:10
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were higher at midday on Wednesday, as the FTSE 100 achieved a new record and outperformed European peers after healthy results for GSK and Next.
The FTSE 100 index was up 72.49 points, 0.8%, at 9,769.23. The FTSE 250 was up 46.37 points, 0.2%, at 22,530.49, and the AIM All-Share was up 4.98 points, 0.7%, at 775.77.
Earlier on Wednesday, the FTSE 100 reached a new intra-day record of 9,770.04. It had hit a new closing peak of 9,696.74 points on Tuesday.
The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.6% at 975.04, the Cboe UK 250 was 0.1% higher at 19,598.25 and the Cboe Small Companies was up 1.1% at 17,869.37.
In European equities on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was marginally lower, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 0.1%.
"A positive mood on Wall Street extended into European markets on Wednesday on increased hopes for a US-China trade deal," said AJ Bell analyst Russ Mould.
US President Donald Trump said he expected a "lot of problems" to be solved with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in their talks on dialling down their trade war.
"I think we're going to have a great meeting with President Xi of China, and a lot of problems are going to be solved," Trump said en route to South Korea where he is due to meet with Xi, saying he is "optimistic".
Trump indicated that a trade deal had been reached with South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung, before adding later the agreement was "pretty much" finalised.
"We did," Trump told journalists when asked if a deal had been reached, without giving further details.
"We reached a deal. We did a lot of different things. Great session," the US leader said.
But the president then appeared to walk back the claim, telling a dinner with APEC leaders including Lee that the deal was "pretty much finalised".
"We pretty much finalised our trade deal and we discussed some other things to do with national security, etc. And I think we came to a conclusion on a lot of very important items," Trump said.
The deal is on investment and shipbuilding.
AJ Bell's Mould said: "The FTSE 100 built on its own all-time highs this morning, with miners doing a lot of the heavy lifting and positive corporate updates from Next and GSK also contributing.
"A key test of investors' optimism looks set to come later with the US Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates and earnings reports from Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft."
Supported by US-China hope, Anglo American added 1.6% and Rio Tinto rose 2.1%. China is a major buyer of minerals.
Sterling was at USD1.3223 at midday on Wednesday, down from USD1.3279 at the London equities close on Tuesday. The euro was lower at USD1.1640 from USD1.1660. Against the yen, the dollar was higher at JPY152.25 versus JPY152.14.
Stocks in New York were called higher ahead of the Fed decision at 1800 GMT. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was called up 0.2%, the S&P 500 index was called 0.3% higher, and the Nasdaq Composite was called up 0.5%.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury widened slightly to 3.99% at midday on Wednesday from 3.98% on Tuesday. The yield on the 30-year was at 4.56%, widened marginally from 4.55%.
The Fed is widely expected to cut by 25 basis points.
In London, Next led the FTSE 100 as shares climbed 7.3%.
The clothing retailer raised its guidance for the current financial year as it noted faster growth in overseas sales, while UK sales growth in the third quarter beat guidance.
The firm said in the 13 weeks to October 25, full price sales were up 11% from last year. It was GBP76 million ahead of guidance for a 4.5% rise in sales in the third quarter.
Next said sales "overperformed" in both the UK and overseas.
The company raised its fourth-quarter full price sales growth outlook to 7.0% from 4.5%, which added GBP36 million of full price sales to its forecast. Further, it raised its full-year guidance for pretax profit by GBP30 million to GBP1.14 billion, which would be up 12% from GBP1.01 billion in financial 2025.
GSK shares were up 2.2% as it raised guidance after a strong third quarter, which saw sales in all three divisions beat expectations.
"Sales grew in all areas, with particularly strong performances in Specialty Medicines, driven by double-digit growth in Respiratory Inflammation & Immunology, Oncology and HIV," said Emma Walmsley, GSK's outgoing chief executive.
The London-based pharmaceuticals company now expects 2025 turnover growth of 6% to 7%, raised from "towards the top end" of the 3% to 5% range previously. In 2024, GSK reported sales of GBP31.38 billion.
On the FTSE 250 index, shares in Aston Martin Lagonda were 2.0% higher after it said it has tightened its investment plans in an effort to cut costs, while its pretax loss widened and revenue tumbles.
The luxury carmaker reported a 27% drop in revenue to GBP285.2 million from GBP391.6 million for the three months ended September 30.
Aston Martin reported its pretax loss widened to GBP111.9 million from GBP12.2 million, which it said reflected the weaker volumes.
The firm said it has launched a review of its future product cycle plan which it expects to reduce capital investment in engineering and development to approximately GBP1.7 billion over the next five years, from approximately GBP2 billion.
Smurfit WestRock shares were down 5.0% as it reported a swing to third-quarter profit, but lowered its full-year guidance range.
The Dublin-based packaging firm reported pretax profit of USD336 million for the three months that ended September 30, swinging from a loss of USD117 million the prior year.
Driving this was net sales advancing 4.3% to USD8.0 billion from USD7.7 billion.
Chief Executive Tony Smurfit tied the quarter's performance to "the continued operational and commercial improvements in our North American business and our strong positions in EMEA and APAC and Latin America".
Smurfit WestRock now guides for adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation between USD4.9 billion and USD5.1 billion, from USD5.0 billion to USD5.2 billion given in the second-quarter results.
Among small-caps, shares in Ceres Power advanced 13%.
UBS raised its price target for the Horsham, England-based clean energy technology developer to 350p from 120p.
The Swiss bank maintained its 'buy' rating on the stock. Ceres Power will join the FTSE 250 index on Thursday.
Shares in 80 Mile rose 14% as it noted an independent report which confirms the "world-class potential" of the Jameson Land Basin in Greenland.
The report estimates 13.03 billion barrels of gross un-risked recoverable prospective oil resources across the upper levels of the basin.
80 Mile's share of the resources is around 3.9 billion barrels, based on its 30% interest post earn-in completion.
Gold was higher at USD4,017.70 an ounce early on Wednesday from USD3,957.04 late Tuesday. Brent oil was trading lower at USD64.03 a barrel from USD64.33.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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