6th Feb 2026 09:15
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened lower on Friday, as renewed fears around artifical intelligence investment spread from the US while software and data stocks came under pressure.
The FTSE 100 index opened down 30.99 points, 0.3%, at 10,278.23. The FTSE 250 was down 108.99 points, 0.5%, at 22,994.36, and the AIM all-share was down 5.51 points, 0.7%, at 797.39.
The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.2% at 1,025.99, the Cboe UK 250 was 0.6% lower at 20,312.38, and the Cboe small companies was down 0.2% at 18,580.39.
In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.5%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was 0.2% lower.
Sterling was at USD1.3572 on Friday morning, up from USD1.3536 at the London equities close on Thursday. The euro was slightly higher at USD1.1795 from USD1.1791. Against the yen, the dollar was marginally lower at JPY156.94 versus JPY156.96.
"It's just another day, another Big Tech earnings announcement, another set of revenue beats, another pledge to invest massively in AI and infrastructure — and another negative market reaction," said Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.
Overnight, Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said capital expenditures will total USD200 million in 2026, significantly above FactSet consensus of USD146.6 billion and ahead of 2025's around USD131 billion.
Jassy named "such strong demand for our existing offerings and seminal opportunities like AI, chips, robotics, and low earth orbit satellites," as reason for the increased investment.
The CEO said Amazon anticipates "strong long-term return on invested capital."
The plans come a day after Google owner Alphabet said it will spend between USD175 billion and USD185 billion in 2026.
Swissquote's Ozkardeskaya said: "At the open today, Amazon could be pushed below the 200-[day moving average], and maybe below the USD200-per-share level. Microsoft is down almost 30% since its November peak; investors particularly disliked slower growth in its cloud unit amid massive capital being thrown at AI tools. Meta is down more than 12% despite revealing that its AI efforts are leading to higher revenue. In vain, investors dislike the huge investment plans here as well."
On the FTSE 100, the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were hit by fears of AI-related disruption to the software, data and analytics sector.
Relx shares were 4.0% lower while Sage Group fell 3.8% and London Stock Exchange Group was down 1.5%.
Meanwhile, UK house prices rose more sharply than expected on-month in January, while annual growth picked up, numbers from Halifax showed.
House prices rose by 0.7% in January following a 0.5% fall in December, with the average price increasing to GBP300,077, above GBP300,000 for the first time. A rise of 0.1% was expected for January, according to market consensus cited by FXStreet.
Annual house price growth increased to 1.0% in January from 0.4% in December.
"While that's undoubtedly a milestone figure, and activity levels show a resilient market, affordability remains a challenge for many would-be buyers," said Halifax head of Mortgages Amanda Bryden.
"Broader economic conditions continue to provide some support. Wage growth has been outpacing property price inflation since late 2022, steadily improving underlying affordability. That's a positive trend for buyers, and the long-term health of the market."
The analyst said Halifax thinks house prices are likely to edge up between 1% and 3% this year.
In Asia on Friday, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo was up 0.8%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was 0.2% lower, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 1.2%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was 2.0% lower.
In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.2%, the S&P 500 1.2% lower and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.6%.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.20%, narrowing slightly from 4.21%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was unchanged at 4.86%.
In London, shares in GSK were down 0.9% after it said the European Commission has approved Nucala, or mepolizumab, as add-on therapy for adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The London-based pharmaceutical firm said clearance was based on results from its phase-three Matinee trial, linking the drug to "clinically meaningful and statistically significant" improvements for lung disease patients.
On the FTSE 250 index, HgCapital Trust led the way and jumped 5.9% after it estimated a net asset value total return per share of 4.0% for 2025, with NAV per share of 561.9 pence at the end of December.
The trust, which provides access to private equity investments of manager Hg, said positive performance and exits above book value in the second half largely offset the first half decline of 0.4%.
"Strong trading from the underlying portfolio companies was a key driver of performance over the year, contributing [plus] 17% to portfolio value," HgCapital Trust added.
"Public market volatility has increased sharply through January and into February 2026, especially in the software sector, sparked by investor concerns about the potential impact of AI on the software industry, coupled with a pronounced rotation of capital out of software and into hardware (chips, memory and data-centre build-out)," it noted.
It added that the broad-based decline has seen its share price fall 20% in the year-to-date.
Given the scale of the recent dislocation between the share price and the value placed on the assets within the HgT portfolio, the board is actively considering a number potential actions to address the current discount to net asset value using the full set of tools at its disposal, including share buy-backs, and following the well-established processes HgT has developed to manage such situations," the firm said.
In a separate release, HgCapital Trust said it has engaged Deutsche Numis to conduct a share buyback programme on its performance. It will be carried out under the existing authorisation for repurchases of up to 15% of issued capital, being 68.6 million shares.
Victrex shares were 4.6% lower as it maintained its annual guidance in a trading update ahead of Friday's annual general meeting.
The Lancashire, England-based polymer producer reported revenue of GBP62.4 million for the first quarter to the end of December, down 6% from GBP66.6 million a year ago. The firm said sales volume fell 4% to 858 tonnes from 898 tonnes.
Victrex added that for the year-to-date performance, to the end of January, volumes were in line with the prior year, with January recovering some of the shortfall from a weaker December. Revenue was slightly lower than the previous year, primarily reflecting sales mix.
"The start of FY 2026 reflected usual Q1 seasonality, alongside a subdued performance across some end-markets. On a year to date basis, our second quarter started solidly, with YTD volumes now in line with the prior year. Whilst we continue to be mindful of wider macroeconomic conditions, our full year guidance remains unchanged," said Chief Executive Officer James Routh.
Gold was slightly higher at USD4,860.40 an ounce early on Friday from USD4,848.34 late Thursday.
Brent oil was trading higher at USD68.22 a barrel on Friday morning from USD67.37 on Thursday.
Still to come on Friday's economic calendar is Canadian jobs data, with the January US jobs report was delayed until Wednesday due to the partial government shutdown.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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