29th May 2025 09:08
(Alliance News) - London stocks opened in the green on Thursday, as a US court moves to block President Donald Trump's levies on global economies and China hits out at a US decision to revoke visas for Chinese international students.
The FTSE 100 index opened up 7.49 points, 0.1%, at 8,733.50. The FTSE 250 was up 118.04 points, 0.6%, at 21,064.23, and the AIM All-Share was up 3.14 points, 0.4%, at 744.72.
The Cboe UK 100 was marginally higher at 870.17, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.5% at 18,563.38, and the Cboe Small Companies was flat at 16,734.16.
In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris rose 1.0%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt gained 0.7%.
A US federal court on Wednesday blocked most import tariffs from going into effect, ruling that President Trump had overstepped his authority with the across-the-board global levies.
The court's order could spell a premature end to the president's international trade war as it effectively erases most of the trade restrictions Trump has announced since taking office. The ruling also quashes duties that Trump imposed on Canada, Mexico and China separately using emergency powers.
There was no immediate response to Wednesday's ruling from the president, although one of his closest White House aides, Stephen Miller, attacked it in a social media post. "The judicial coup is out of control," he said.
The Trump administration subsequently filed an appeal.
China meanwhile urged the US to "fully cancel the wrongful unilateral tariff measures".
Ministry of Commerce spokeswoman He Yongqian told a news conference: "China urges the US to heed the rational voices from the international community and domestic stakeholders and fully cancel the wrongful unilateral tariff measures."
In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended in the red, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.6%, the S&P 500 also 0.6% lower and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.5%.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.53%, widening from 4.49%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 5.02%, widening from 4.99%.
Meanwhile, Trump's administration has also vowed to "aggressively" revoke visas of Chinese students, one of the largest sources of revenue for American universities, in his latest broadside against US higher education.
The announcement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio marked a show of defiance after China criticized his decision a day earlier to suspend visa appointments for students worldwide at least temporarily.
The US will "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields," Rubio said in a statement.
"We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong," he said.
China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said: "The US has unreasonably cancelled Chinese students' visas under the pretext of ideology and national rights. China firmly opposes this and has lodged representations with the US."
Harvard University has been flooded with requests from foreign students to transfer to other institutions as US President Donald Trump's administration seeks to ban it from hosting international scholars, a staff member said Wednesday. More than 27% of Harvard's enrolment was made up of foreign students in the 2024-25 academic year, according to university data.
In Asia on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was 1.9% higher. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.7%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 1.4%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 0.2%.
The pound was quoted up at USD1.3468 early on Thursday in London, compared to USD1.3465 at the equities close on Wednesday. The euro stood lower at USD1.1278, against USD1.1294. Against the yen, the dollar was trading higher at JPY145.21 compared to JPY144.95.
Blue Star Capital rose 30% at London's market open on Thursday.
The investing company focused on esports and blockchain said investee SatoshiPay has achieved USD1 million in transaction volumes on its decentralised exchange platform Vortex since launching in Europe and Brazil. Around USD507,000 of the total volume came from transactions in May alone.
Atalaya Mining Copper was the FTSE 250's top winner, up 5.1%.
The copper producer in Spain said pretax profit in its first quarter that ended March 31 jumped to EUR37.5 million from EUR2.1 million the year before. Revenue nearly doubled to EUR130.7 million from EUR69.9 million, while exploration expenses surged to EUR3.3 million from EUR855,000.
Copper production in the three-month period reached 14,291 tonnes, in its best quarter since 2021's second quarter. This was up 34% from 10,666 tonnes a year prior.
"We remain very optimistic about the year ahead," said Chief Executive Officer Alberto Lavandeira. "We expect to make further progress across our copper growth projects in Spain, at a time when the copper market remains very tight despite global political developments and ongoing sector [mergers & acquisitions] is reducing options for investors that seek exposure to copper growth stories."
At the other end, Auto Trader was the FTSE 100's biggest loser, down 9.9%.
The Manchester, England-based owner of the UK's largest automotive marketplace reported pretax profit of GBP375.7 million for its financial year that ended March 31, rising 8.8% from GBP345.2 million the year before. Revenue grew 5.3% to GBP601.1 million from GBP570.9 million, while the firm's operating profit margin widened to 63% from 61%.
Auto Trader declared a final dividend of 7.1 pence per share, up 11% on-year from 6.4p and bringing its total dividend for the year up 10% to 10.6p per share from 9.6p.
"Despite broader macroeconomic uncertainties, the UK car market is in good health and we continue to deliver against our strategy to improve car buying and retailing," says Chief Executive Officer Nathan Coe. "We remain confident in the outlook for the business given our strong market position, the value we deliver for customers, and our unique data and technology capabilities."
Retailer revenue growth is expected to improve to between 5% and 7% in financial 2026, and operating profit margins expected to increase as a result of an anticipated reduction in losses within Autorama, in line with market consensus.
Car manufacturing in the UK fell by 8.6% on year in April to its lowest level for that month since 1952, other than the Covid-19 lockdown year of 2020, industry figures showed on Thursday.
A later Easter and model changeovers contributed to the fall in car production, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders. Reduced demand from key export markets also hurt output, SMMT said, as international trading uncertainty resulted in a 10% fall in car exports from the UK.
The industry group said April's decline contributed to the UK auto sector's slowest start to a year since 2009. Commercial vehicle production fared even worse, falling by 69%, with exports dropping by 76%, SMMT said.
Brent oil was quoted higher at USD65.38 a barrel early in London on Thursday from USD64.43 late Wednesday.
Gold was quoted down at USD3,283.62 an ounce against USD3,296.24.
Still to come on Thursday's economic calendar, there's a US gross domestic product reading and the latest initial jobless claims data at 1330 BST.
By Emily Parsons, Alliance News reporter
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