30th Oct 2025 09:16
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened lower on Thursday, as the FTSE 100 retreated from a record high in the wake of a "hawkish" cut by the Federal Reserve.
The FTSE 100 index opened down 45.01 points, 0.5%, at 9,711.13. The FTSE 250 was down 83.49 points, 0.4%, at 22,364.78, and the AIM All-Share was down 2.32 points, 0.3%, at 770.57.
The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.4% at 969.74, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.5% at 19,421.48, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 1.0% at 17,971.38.
In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris was flat, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 0.2%.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday lowered expectations for a further rate reduction in December, stating it was far from a foregone conclusion.
Investor attention will turn to the European Central Bank on Thursday afternoon, which is expected to hold.
In trade news, President Xi Jinping said China has reached a consensus with the US on economic and trade issues, state media reported, after meeting Thursday with US leader Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Xi told Trump that the two countries "should have positive interactions on the regional and international stage", Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
Xi said that teams from both sides had "exchanged in-depth views on important economic and trade issues and reached a consensus on resolving them", according to the Xinhua readout which offered no details on specific agreements reached.
Trump said the talks yielded an extendable one-year deal on China's supply of crucial rare earths.
He said tariffs imposed over China's export of chemicals used to make the deadly drug fentanyl would be reduced to 10% – bringing overall US tariffs on Chinese goods to 47%.
Trump also said China had agreed to purchase "tremendous" amounts of soybeans, as well as other farm products.
Further, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that China would "begin the process of purchasing American energy."
He added that the deal could amount to a "very large-scale transaction" involving oil and gas from the state of Alaska.
There was no immediate comment from Beijing on Trump's post.
Overnight megacap earnings reports were "somewhat mixed", Pepperstone analyst Michael Brown said.
"While Alphabet smashed it out of the park everywhere one looked, Meta delivered something of a subpar slate of figures, even if that report was significantly skewed by a one-off income tax charge of almost USD16 billion. Microsoft, meanwhile, reported figures that were pretty much in line with expectations, though sold-off regardless, likely as the market's bar was simply an impossibly high one for the firm to reach," Brown said.
Versus the dollar, sterling fell to USD1.3203 early Thursday, from USD1.3236 at the time of the London equities close on Wednesday. The euro declined to USD1.1614 from USD1.1660. Against the yen, the dollar rose to JPY153.73 from JPY152.10.
In Asia on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 was flat. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.7%, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was 0.2% lower. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was down 0.5%.
In New York on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% and the S&P 500 ended fractionally lower. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6%.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury widened to 4.07% on Thursday morning from 4.00%. The 30-year yield stretched to 4.62% from 4.57%.
In London, Standard Chartered climbed 2.3% after it said it expects to reach its guided return on tangible equity already in 2025 instead of by 2026, as it reported profit and non-net interest growth.
The London-based, Asia and Africa-focused lender said pretax profit climbed 9.9% to USD1.99 billion in the third quarter of 2025, from USD1.81 billion a year ago.
Looking ahead, Standard Chartered expects return on tangible equity around 13% in 2025 with progress thereafter, earlier than previously guided. When it had published its half-year results, it said it anticipated approaching a RoTE of 13% in 2026 with progress thereafter.
Further, the company expects 2025 income growth towards the upper end of the 5% to 7% range at constant currency excluding notable items. It had previously guided it to be around the bottom of the range.
Shares in WPP sank 11% as it said its performance in the year-to-date was at the low-end of expectations.
The London-based advertising agency said revenue in the third quarter fell 8.4% to GBP3.26 billion, and was down 3.5% on a like-for-like basis. Revenue in the year-to-date is 8.0% lower at GBP9.92 billion, or down 2.8% on a like-for-like basis.
Based on trading in the year so far, the firm expects 2025 like-for-like growth in revenue less pass-through costs of between negative 5.5% and negative 6.0%, with a headline operating profit margin of around 13%.
"My ambition is for WPP to lead our industry in terms of innovation, client delivery and organic growth. However, I acknowledge that our recent performance is unacceptable and we are taking action to address this," said Chief Executive Officer Cindy Rose.
Shell shares were 0.7% lower after it kept up the pace of share buybacks and said it is starting a new USD3.5 billion programme after completing last quarter's USD3.5 billion of repurchases.
The London-based oil and gas major declares a dividend per share of 35.80 US cents in its third quarter results, unchanged from the second quarter.
Income attributable to shareholders rose to USD5.32 billion in the quarter to the end of September from USD4.29 billion a year ago.
On the FTSE 250 index, shares in Computacenter were up 3.1% after it said it continues to expect its full-year adjusted operating profit in 2025 to be ahead of the prior year.
The technology services provider said its performance in the nine months to date was "comfortably ahead" of last year.
"While we also face a tough comparative following a strong finish to 2024, we are encouraged both by our progress year to date and our committed product order backlog, which remains healthy in all geographies," the company said.
"Looking further ahead, the combination of the strength of our integrated Technology Sourcing and Services model and our geographic diversity, gives us continued confidence in our long-term growth prospects," Computacenter added.
On the AIM index, Getech shares jumped 31%.
The energy resources and mineral locator said it has signed 12 contracts over the last month, worth GBP330,000 together, of which it expects to recognise GBP300,000 in the current financial year.
As a result, the company said its existing orderbook now stands at GBP4.1 million, up from GBP3.9 million at the end of June.
ValiRx shares sank 45%.
The life sciences company announced a fundraising to raise up to GBP1.1 million, through the placing, retail offer and subscription of up to 420.0 million new shares at 0.25 pence each, plus the conditional grant of up to 427.7 million fundraising warrants.
Gold fell to USD3,972.70 an ounce on Thursday morning, from USD3,997.24 at the time of the London equities close on Wednesday. Brent declined to USD63.91 a barrel from USD64.52.
Still to come on Thursday's economic calendar are several eurozone releases alongside the ECB rate call, including unemployment, gross domestic product, and consumer confidence.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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