FTSE 100 Live: Natwest ups guidance, Retail sales rise October 24, 2025 Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. As we get closer and closer to the Budget, businesses are becoming more and more vocal on their concerns over what could be in store. Yesterday it was the turn of London estate agent Foxton’s, which warned of softened demand as a result of Budget uncertainty. “Macroeconomic [...]
Scrap stamp duty on shares or risk FTSE 100 exodus, Peel Hunt warns October 24, 2025 The government must scrap stamp duty taxed on share trades or risk a growing number of firms quitting London for the New York Stock Exchange, investment bank Peel Hunt has warned. As much as £200m is already set to be lost from government tax receipts by the decision of Astrazeneca, the FTSE 100’s largest constituent, [...]
St James’s Place continues on its path to redemption October 23, 2025 The UK’s leading wealth manager, St James’s Place, has continued on with its work to move past its 2024 downfall, reporting a “strong quarter” as funds under management hit record highs. Gross inflows increased to £5.7bn, a 30 per cent jump from the £4.4bn recorded the previous year, while net inflows jumped 98 per cent, [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Lloyds takes profit beat, LSEG new investment October 23, 2025 Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. Just how much is the motor finance redress scheme going to cost Britain’s biggest banks? Yesterday’s results from Barclays offered an insight – and it wasn’t pretty. The Canary Wharf-based bank almost quadrupled the provision it had set aside to cover motor finance claims, from under £100m [...]
The ‘confidence gap’ is discouraging women from investing October 23, 2025 The UK financial services’ sectors fixation with the ‘confidence gap’ is actively turning women away from investing, a trading platform has warned. An analysis by Etoro of more than 80 UK reports on women investing by the financial services industry, found a repeated belief that the gender investment gap was caused by a lack of [...]
UK dividends fall as companies battle challenging economic backdrop October 23, 2025 UK dividends tumbled in the third quarter of the financial year, as large companies made significant cuts to their shareholder payouts. According to the latest dividend monitor from financial services firm Computershare, London-listed firms paid their shareholders £24.6bn in the third quarter, through one off and regular payments. This was a 1.4 per cent year-on-year [...]
Reeves’ tax grab could ‘wipe £4bn out of the stock market’ October 22, 2025 One of the UK’s leading trading platforms has warned Chancellor Rachel Reeves that raising retail investor taxes could wipe billions off the stock market, undermining government attempts to boost domestic investing and strengthen the London market. According to research from trading platform IG, a two percentage point increase in both dividend and capital gains tax [...]
FTSE 100 Live: UK inflation holds at 3.8 per cent, Barclays share buyback October 22, 2025 Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. The UK’s top banks are gearing up for a third-quarter reporting season where all eyes will be on the Labour government’s second Autumn Budget. Speculation of a bank tax hike has dominated chatter around the sector in recent months and elevated fears across the City. It also [...]
Darktrace boss blames employee share rules for London exit October 22, 2025 The boss of Darktrace has said that the London Stock Exchange’s restrictive rules over offering options and equity to staff drove its decision to leave the UK bourse in 2023, saying it limited its ability to attract and retain talent. Jill Popelka told a Bloomberg event that the “limitations” meant that as a London-listed company [...]
Playtech shares tumble after firm becomes embroiled in US lawsuit October 21, 2025 Shares in Playtech tumbled on Tuesday after it emerged the gambling software firm had become embroiled in a US defamation lawsuit. The FTSE 250 firm has been named as the company behind a 2021 investigative report which made a string of misconduct allegations against its Swedish rival, Evolution. Playtech is understood to have commissioned Israeli [...]