FTSE 100 today: latest UK stock market news

When Asos sold a majority stake in Topshop for £135 million last week and then announced a £250 million bond refinancing, investors’ support was reflected by a 18 per cent jump in the fast-fashion retailer’s shares. Analysts, meanwhile, heaped praise on the company for resolving its immediate cash concerns.
Yet not everyone was convinced by the former stock market darling’s turnaround. Analysts at Barclays, while acknowledging the “much-needed cash injection” as being a positive catalyst, believe that the focus now will be on the company’s fundamentals and they view “the risk/reward as skewed to the downside”.
Sarah Roberts and her team at the bank reckon that more debt is likely to need refinancing, meaning that earnings and free cashflow will be important in the medium term. She thinks, too, that there are some risks to consensus numbers for 2025 and in the medium term, given that the outlook looks “challenged” amid fierce competition from the likes of Shein, Temu and Vinted.
As such, Barclays did away with its “neutral” recommendation in favour of “underweight”, saying that it could take a more positive stance on Asos only when there was evidence that the company could return to growth and deliver on market expansion. The downgrade pushed Asos’s shares 9¼p, or 2.1 per cent, lower to 426¼p.
A downbeat mood settled on the wider market, too. The FTSE 100 reversed almost all of the previous session’s gains, closing down 64.86 points, or 0.8 per cent, at 8,205.98. AstraZeneca was among the significant drags, falling 306p, or 2.4 per cent, to £124.06 after publishing disappointing trial results for a lung cancer drug.
Also weighing on the senior index was oil, with a drop in crude prices filtering through to BP, which fell 9¼p, or 2.3 per cent, to 397½p, while Shell lost 37½p, or 1.5 per cent, to £25.08½. In the FTSE 250 Ithaca Energy shed 5¼p, or 4.9 per cent, to 102p and Harbour Energy slipped 12½p, or 4.7 per cent, to 258½p.
This offset strength among property stocks and London’s goldminers. Rate-sensitive property companies such as Unite and LondonMetric rose — the former by 37½p, or 3.9 per cent, to 988½p and the latter by 4¾p, or 2.4 per cent, to 207p — as new pay and employment figures indicated that the Bank of England is on track to cut interest rates again before the end of the year.
Fresnillo rose 9½p, or 1.9 per cent, to 514p and Endeavour Mining added 26p, or 1.7 per cent, to £15.86, both buoyed by Centamin’s recommended takeover by a larger American rival. Centamin shares jumped 27½p, or 22.9 per cent, to 147p, their highest level in almost four years.
Despite the push from the Egyptian-focused miner, the FTSE 250 closed broadly flat, up only 5.26 points at 20,656.14 amid a decline in energy stocks and a sharp fall by Alpha Group. Shares in the financial services business tumbled 260p, or 11.1 per cent, to a near-five-month low of £20.90 after it said that Morgan Tillbrook, its founder and long-serving chief executive, would step down at the end of the year.
Capital & Regional dropped 5p, or 7.4 per cent, to 64p after Praxis, a potential suitor, said it did not intend to make a firm offer for the shopping centres owner. By contrast, Audioboom struck the right note with small-cap investors after the podcast group said it had recorded revenues of $6 million last month, up 35 per cent on August last year. Its shares leapt by 22½p, or 11 per cent, to 227½p.
A trading update from Inspecs also caught the eye. Shares of the maker of glasses frames and lenses ended the day 4p, or 7.7 per cent, higher at 56p. Not only were there no nasty surprises in the group’s half-year results, w trading so far in the second half has exceeded the previous year.
Opec has again downgraded its forecast for global oil demand growth over the next two years, prompted by sluggish growth in China and the move to cleaner energy (Jessica Sharkey writes).The cartel said that demand was expected to increase by 2.03 million barrels per day this year, down from last month’s estimate of 2.11 million. Its forecast for 2025 has also been cut, from 1.78 million barrels per day to 1.74 million.This marks the second consecutive month that the producers’ group, which includes exporters such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, has reduced its demand growth projections. Last week’s Opec+, a coalition of Opec members and allies such as Russia, decided to delay plans to start pumping more oil after prices hit their lowest level this year.China is the world’s largest crude oil importer. Opec cut its forecast of Chinese growth to 650,000 barrels per day this year, from 700,000 previously. Demand for oil in the country has declined amid the growing adoption of electric vehicles and slowing economic growth since the pandemic.Oil prices dipped after the weaker demand outlook. Brent crude oil was below $71 a barrel on Tuesday, having risen by about 1 per cent on Monday.
Technology stocks provided the positive note in a mixed session before Wednesday’s inflation data. The Nasdaq rose 141.28 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 17,025.88. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 92.63 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 40,736.96.