16th Oct 2026 08:41
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in Europe opened mixed on Friday, but the mood in markets was calmer after a tech sell-off in Asia and US made way for more constructive trade overnight.
The FTSE 100 index fell 28.58 points, 0.2%, at 10,811.77. It is still up 2.5% this week, however.
The FTSE 250 in London was up 52.97 points, 0.2%, at 24,477.74, and the AIM All-Share added 3.21 points, 0.4%, at 768.30.
The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.3% at 1,072.22, the Cboe UK 250 rose 0.2% at 21,462.57, and the Cboe Small Companies was 0.1% lower at 18,799.11.
In Paris, the CAC 40 was down 0.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt rose 0.6%.
Putting pressure on the FTSE 100 were major banks. Lloyds was down 2.3%, NatWest shed 2.2% and Barclays was 0.6% lower. Also putting pressure on Lloyds, RBC cut the stock to 'sector perform'.
UK Chancellor John Healey is poised to tax Britain's banks more heavily in his October 28 budget, to help offset the damage inflicted on the public finances by war in the Middle East, the Guardian reported late Thursday.
To keep the Treasury's deficit reduction plans on track in the face of rising UK government borrowing costs, the Guardian said it understands Healey has decided to tap the financial sector for additional revenue.
One option understood to be under discussion – reversing cuts to the bank surcharge made by former chancellor Jeremy Hunt – would raise upwards of GBP2 billion a year, the newspaper said.
The UK's biggest banks and building societies currently pay a surcharge of 3% on top of the baseline 25% rate of corporation tax, plus a levy on the assets held on their balance sheets. The 3% surcharge was reduced from 8% under the former chancellor, at the same time as he raised corporation tax from 19% to 25%.
UK banks pay a 3% surcharge on annual taxable profit above a GBP100 million allowance.
Spared from the banking sector woe on Friday, Metro Bank shares climbed 3.7%, among the best FTSE 250 performer.
In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.1%%, the S&P 500 up 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.1%.
The tech worries calmed on Friday, with stocks in Asia perking up after New York ended higher.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 ended up 1.4%, after a near-5% plunge on Thursday. The Shanghai Composite closed 0.2% higher, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was up 0.5%. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.0%.
Aiding the mood in tech were remarks by Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, defending CoreWeave, which came under substantial selling pressure as investors fretted over its finances.
Huang played down the worries, saying CoreWeave is "improving every day", Bloomberg reported.
"Their cost of capital is actually decreasing," the Nvidia boss added.
CoreWeave is a provider of a cloud platform for artificial intelligence. Nvidia in January announced it made a USD2 billion investment in CoreWeave.
Analysts at ING commented: "Financial markets have calmed a little after Coreweave stock bounced on Thursday. But the debate between intensifying price pressures needing tighter monetary policy and a tech correction requiring a softer policy outlook continues."
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 5.08% early Friday, narrowing from 5.10% at the time of the London equities close on Thursday. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was steady at 5.42%.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3314, up from USD1.3254. Against the euro, sterling nudged up to EUR1.1843 from EUR1.1828.
The euro firmed to USD1.1237 from USD1.1204. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY157.96, down from JPY158.16.
Gold was quoted at USD4,171.41 an ounce, rising from USD4,152.39. Brent oil traded at USD105.33 a barrel, down from USD106.33.
US President Donald Trump called Ukraine's renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries a "disgrace," in an interview published Thursday.
"Well, I think that's a disgrace," Trump told broadcaster Newsmax when asked about Ukraine's renewed strikes, adding that they were driving up global energy prices.
The 80-year-old US leader took aim at his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, asserting that he was less willing than Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a compromise to end the war.
"It should end soon. I think they actually both would like to see it end," Trump said to Newsmax.
Friday's global economic calendar has eurozone inflation figures and a US industrial production report.
Back in London, Man Group added 2.0%. Man Group said assets under management increased in the third quarter, supported by net inflows of around USD10 billion. Assets under management amounted to USD270.9 billion at the September 30 quarter end, a rise of 6.8% from USD253.6 billion in June.
Net inflows totalled USD10.1 billion, Man said, with the bulk coming in the long-only equity category.
A positive investment performance lifted the assets under management by USD5.9 billion.
Net inflows picked up in the third quarter, with the USD10.1 billion topping the USD7.1 billion Man reported for the whole of the first half of 2026.
Iofina shares shed 9.1%. The iodine producer said it made "significant" strategic progress in the third quarter, but output was weaker than expected.
Its Iofina Resources arm produced 205.2 metric tonnes of crystalline iodine during the period, down from 215.8 a year prior. The output was "lower than anticipated due to lower-than-expected total water volumes at our plants, plant maintenance" and delays to the completion of one pipeline and the commissioning of another.
"Suppliers to plants in our central Oklahoma core area have implemented new upgrades which initially required certain disposal wells to be shut down while performing this work. The company believes this is just a timing of many factors, and we can confirm that water volumes have improved as we collectively work back to the brine flows to previous levels," Iofina said.
Due to lower levels of water at the plants and delays, it now sees second half output closer to 440 to 455 metric tonnes. Its previous forecast ranged between 460 and 485.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
Comments and questions to [email protected]
Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
LloydsNatwestBarclaysMetro Bank