FTSE 100 Live: Stocks inch back up; UK faces energy bills warning March 4, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Yesterday, Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement. The Chancellor wheeled out new forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility that cut growth for 2026 but – albeit modestly – upgraded it for the years to come. But forecasts were quickly labelled out of date by [...]
Spring Statement Live: UK growth cut for 2026 but Reeves touts future forecasts March 3, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement today, as the Office for Budget Responsibility published its updated forecasts for the years ahead. The Chancellor was handed quite a hefty blow with the UK’s growth estimate for 2026 slashed to 1.1 per cent from 1.4 per cent the year prior. [...]
Pearson boss shrugs off investor AI fears after share jitters February 27, 2026 The boss of Pearson has shrugged off shareholder concerns that the company’s services could be usurped by the rising use of AI chatbots. Earlier in the year the education giant was one of a number of London-listed data and software-led stocks, including the likes of Sage and Relx, that suffered steep selloffs amid investor anxieties [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Pound hits two month low after byelection, Flutter shares tumble February 27, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. We were treated to a whole host of corporate updates yesterday and investors in some of the City’s biggest blue-chips were handed plans for bumper returns. Aerospace giant Rolls-Royce revealed ambitions to dish out up to £9bn to shareholders through from 2026 to 2028. The [...]
Hong Kong exchange reports record profits as listings rocket February 26, 2026 Hong Kong’s stock exchange operator has posted a second consecutive year of record profits, after the city became one of the top listing destinations globally, following a slump. Net profit rose 36 per cent to HK$17.8bn (£1.7bn) in 2025, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing confirmed. Core business revenues, which include fees from trading and clearing [...]
LSEG unveils biggest-ever buyback as firm fends off Elliott and AI threat February 26, 2026 The operator of the London Stock Exchange has unveiled its biggest-ever buyback as the company fends off the dual threats of activist investor pressure and shareholder fears over the rise of AI. LSEG said it would buy back at least £3bn of shares over the next twelve months, adding to the £2.1bn buyback carried out [...]
Rolls-Royce shares rally after unveiling bumper buyback plan February 26, 2026 Rolls-Royce has laid out plans to return billions to investors over the next two years after the blue-chip giant’s profit rocketed, leading to an upgrade of targets. The aerospace titan revealed plans for a £7bn to £9bn multi-year share buyback from 2026 to 2028, which comes as the firm wraps up a £1bn buyback from [...]
Buy more small caps, says Panmure Liberum. But which ones? February 26, 2026 Now is the time to get back into British small caps, according to the boffins at Panmure Liberum. Headline valuations, on a P/E ratio basis, don’t seem much different in the small caps compared to their big-cap counterparts. But Panmure says that when you adjust for differences in sector composition, you get an average discount [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Index hits record as HSBC, St James’s stock rally February 25, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. There’s a number of factors weighing on global markets at the moment, and yet the FTSE 100 was able to close Tuesday’s session unscathed. It came despite President Donald Trump’s new 10 per cent tariffs coming into effect, sending some jitters across global indexes. But [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks take a dip amid tariff turmoil; Oil price soars February 24, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. The good old safety net of London’s blue-chip index strikes again. The week kicked off with more tariff drama after Saturday’s announcement from President Donald Trump of a sweeping 15 per cent levy across the US’ trading partners. As cool heads prevailed in government – [...]