28th Nov 2025 09:16
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened higher on Friday morning, helped by a swathe of broker upgrades including for easyJet and Weir Group.
The FTSE 100 index opened up 15.69 points, 0.2%, at 9,709.62. The FTSE 250 was down 3.49 points at 22,087.98, and the AIM All-Share was up 1.77 points, 0.2% at 750.76.
The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.2% at 971.81, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 19,189.90, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.3% at 17,478.69.
In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris was flat, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 0.2%.
Investors continued to unpick the market consequences of Wednesday's crucial UK budget, while Wall Street prepared to return from Thanksgiving for half a day of trading.
Meanwhile in Germany, retail sales declined monthly in October; while real wage growth accelerated in the third quarter of the year, data published by the Federal Statistical Office showed.
Import prices rose by 0.2% monthly in October, the same pace as in September, and faster than the FXStreet-cited consensus of no change. The annual decline in import prices slowed to 1.4% in October from 1.0% in September. The consensus was for a sharper deceleration in the annual fall of import prices to 1.6% in October.
Export prices were up 0.2% monthly in October, compared to no change in September. The annual rise decelerated to 0.5% in October from 0.6% in September.
German retail sales fell by 0.3% monthly in October after a 0.3% uptick in September, underperforming against the consensus of 0.2% growth in October. September's increase was revised up from 0.2%.
Further, Germany's unemployment rate came down a notch in November, data published by the Federal Employment Agency showed.
The country's unemployment rate stood at 6.1% in November, down from 6.2% in October.
The seasonally-adjusted rate remained unchanged at 6.3%.
Sterling was at USD1.3202 on Friday morning, down from USD1.3251 at the London equities close on Thursday. The euro was lower at USD1.1571 from USD1.1599. Against the yen, the dollar was higher at JPY156.36 versus JPY156.27.
In Asia on Friday, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo was up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was 0.4% higher, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong lost 0.3%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was marginally down.
US financial markets were closed for Thanksgiving Day on Thursday and are open for just a half day on Friday.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury was unchanged from Wednesday's close at 4.01%. The yield on the 30-year was at 4.65%, narrowed slightly from 4.66%.
In London, easyJet led the way on the FTSE 100 index and climbed 1.9%.
Bernstein upgraded the budget carrier to an 'outperform' rating, up from 'market-perform' and raised the price target to 560 pence from 520p.
On Tuesday, easyJet said its annual earnings improved as it achieved its medium-term profit goal at the holidays arm ahead of schedule.
Weir Group shares were up 1.5% on Friday morning, after Exane BNP reinitiated the stock with an 'outperform' rating and a price target of 3,450p.
Shares in Kingfisher climbed 0.7% as it kicked off the GBP50 million fourth tranche of an ongoing buyback programme.
The London-based DIY and home improvement retailer has appointed Morgan Stanley & Co International to run this tranche, which is part of a planned GBP300 million scheme.
This was announced back in March, when Kingfisher completed a previous GBP300 million buyback programme.
Whitbread shares sank 5.6% as it was hit by a double downgrade from Bernstein, who cut its rating to 'underperform' from 'outperform'.
The price target was lowered to 2,500p from 3,600p.
Shares in Burberry were down 2.5%.
JPMorgan cut its rating for the London-based fashion house to 'underweight' from 'neutral'. However, it raised the price target to 950p from 850p.
On the FTSE 250 index, Mitchells & Butlers jumped 9.9% as it said like-for-like sales continued to "outperform the market across all segments", helping offset pressures of rising labour and food costs.
The Birmingham, England-based restaurant and pub operator said pretax profit jumped 20% to GBP238 million for the 12 months that ended September 27 from GBP199 million the year prior, with basic earnings per share up 19% to 29.7 pence from 25.0p.
Operating profit increased 7.3% to GBP322 million from GBP300 million with an operating margin of 11.9%, improved from 11.5%.
Revenue climbed 3.9% to GBP2.71 billion from GBP2.61 billion a year ago, with like-for-like sales growth of 4.3%.
"We are pleased to report another year of strong performance. Like-for-like sales continued to outperform the market across all segments," said Chief Executive Phil Urban.
Cost headwinds for the financial year of GBP100 million were driven by labour costs, including increases to the UK National Living Wage and a second half increase in UK employer national insurance contributions.
Looking forward to financial 2026, Mitchells & Butlers said it anticipates an increase in the level of cost inflation, to around GBP130 million, driven by rising labour costs and high increases in food costs, notably meat. This includes a preliminary assessment of the impact of this week's UK government budget, the company said.
"We believe that our strong market position, together with the success of our Ignite improvement programme, should enable us to continue to outperform the sector and leave us well positioned to mitigate these increases," Mitchells & Butlers said.
It has made a "solid start" to financial 2026 with like-for-like sales of 3.8% in the first eight weeks, picking up speed from 3.2% in the fourth quarter of the financial year just ended, the company said.
On the AIM market, shares in boohoo Group jumped 48%.
The stock continued to rise after Thursday's strong gains when the Manchester-based online retailer announced a new management incentive scheme as it said its turnaround is "well underway."
The firm, which trades under the Debenhams name, said it has a "clear line of sight" to the Debenhams brand delivering GBP1 billion gross merchandise value and GBP50 million plus earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation within three years.
boohoo said group GMV, post returns, fell 23% to GBP406.9 million in the half year that ended August 31 from GBP529.7 million a year prior, with revenue also down 23% to GBP296.9 million from GBP385.4 million.
Pretax loss narrowed to GBP2.5 million from GBP130.0 million, while adjusted Ebitda rose 5.3% to GBP20.0 million from GBP19.0 million at a margin of 6.7%, improved from 4.9%.
boohoo's new management scheme would see Chief Executive Dan Finley net a GBP148.1 million maximum should the share price reach 300p within 5 years. Chief Financial Officer Phil Ellis stands to get a maximum GBP14.8 million under the proposals.
essensys shares were up 0.6% as it received a non-binding proposal for a possible all-cash offer from Mark Furness, founder and non-executive director of the company.
The offer for the London-based software and cloud service provider would be for 20 pence per share. The stock closed at 15.50p on Thursday.
essensys said its independent directors are in "preliminary discussions" with Furness in relation to the possible offer. Furness has until December 26 to either announce a firm intention to make an offer or that he does not intend to make an offer.
The firm also provided a trading update and reported revenue of GBP4.1 million for the first quarter of financial 2026, which it said is "broadly in line" with management expectations.
It expects financial 2026 results to be "materially below" management expectations.
"However, the group restructure is expected to generate significant annualised cost savings and this, in addition to the cost savings already realised from the completion of the data centre decommissioning project, protects the group's cash position going forward," it added.
However, essensys said it is in active discussions to secure a debt facility.
Gold was up at USD4,166.50 an ounce early on Friday from USD4,153.66 late Thursday. Brent oil was trading lower at USD63.00 a barrel from USD63.28.
Still to come on Friday's economic calendar is Canadian GDP data and CPI figures for Germany.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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Related Shares:
easyJetWeir GroupKingfisherWhitbreadBurberryMitchells & ButlersBoohooEssensys