Rachel Reeves plots stamp duty exemption for newly listed shares October 2, 2025 There are growing hopes for a revival for London’s moribund IPO market after reports chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing to unveil a stamp duty exemption on shares of newly-listed companies. The move, which is set to be announced at the forthcoming Budget in November, would remove the 0.5 per cent tax charge on the buying [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Tesco shares rally; OpenAI nets $500bn price tag October 2, 2025 Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. The FTSE 100 is leading the City higher this morning as it continues to build on records sealed earlier in the week. The index rose 0.2 per cent to 9,464.91 this morning, following on from yesterday’s gains. Also continuing its rally was gold, propelled on by the [...]
Fenchurch Street’s new skyscraper looks great. Will it ever get built? October 2, 2025 The City of London Corporation has approved plans for another skyscraper in the Square Mile. Having had a look at the application, the building looks gorgeous and will surely make a great addition to the City’s skyline. I particularly like how the facade is interspersed with patches of greenery. But will it ever get built? [...]
Thought Machine lands £45m funding round after losses widen October 2, 2025 Thought Machine has sealed a £45m funding round after the London fintech reported widening losses. The funding was secured in July, according to fresh Companies House filings seen by City AM, but the firm had not previously disclosed the investment. Thought Machine said it obtained the cash from its existing investor base. “The funding supplements [...]
JP Morgan scraps Nutmeg in launch of new personal investing brand October 1, 2025 JP Morgan is to scrap its Nutmeg brand and roll its services into a new consumer wealth management business as it intensifies its battle with market leader Hargreaves Lansdown. The new service, dubbed JP Morgan Personal Investing, will offer managed investments, pensions, and ISAs alongside digital financial planning tools and dedicated relationship managers. The bank [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Index hits record high as AstraZeneca and GSK shares soar October 1, 2025 Good morning from the liveblog team at City AM. Some acronyms are so entrenched in common parlance that they need not be explained: NHS, GDP, MOT. Up until now, we at City AM thought ‘IPO’ sat squarely within that category. But the listings pipeline has become so thin, we may have to start reminding readers [...]
‘It’s a desert out there’: London sinks to 23rd in IPO venue rankings September 30, 2025 The pace with which London is losing its status as a global financial markets hub has been laid bare after the capital fell to as low as 23rd in a global ranking of IPO destinations. Just £184m was raised on the London Stock Exchange in the first nine months of the year, a far cry from [...]
Business sentiment sours as firms brace for tax hikes September 30, 2025 Business sentiment slumped in September as firms were braced for a fresh round of tax hikes in the autumn Budget. Private sector confidence slipped from 54 per cent to 42 per cent, according to the Lloyds Business Barometer survey, data which is typically seen as more cheery than rival surveys. Economic optimism edged down for [...]
Asos shares sink after sales fall behind expectations September 30, 2025 Shares in e-commerce fashion firm Asos have tumbled after the company reported sales short of expectations and vowed to extend its cost-cutting programme in a bid to secure “even stronger profitability foundations”. The London-based business said it “had planned to shift gears” from rebuilding its commercial model towards “re-engaging with customers.” “Instead, more opportunity to [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Asos and Close Brothers lead City stocks’ fall as economic growth slows September 30, 2025 Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. When Rachel Reeves prepared her inaugural budget last year, she had little in the way of good news to impart to the people of Britain. The chancellor said she’d been left a bad inheritance, and had to raise tens of billions of pounds in extra taxes to plug spending [...]