FTSE 100 Live: Gold rally eases; Trump warns UK on China trade January 30, 2026 Good morning and welcome to the Morning Wire liveblog. As we round off the first month of trading, miners have dominated market activity. After becoming the FTSE 100’s top riser in 2025, gold miner Fresnillo has continued with gains in the new year, netting 20 per cent already. This is an inch below the FTSE [...]
Lloyds shares rally after profit boost and £1.8bn buyback January 29, 2026 Shares in Lloyds Banking Group jumped on Thursday as the bank launched a £1.8bn share buyback after breezing past profit expectations in the 2025 financial year. The FTSE 100 banking giant recorded a 12 per cent jump to pre-tax profit in the full-year netting £6.7bn and easily surpassing the £6.4bn pencilled in by internal analysts. [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Miners lead stock rally; Pound holds onto gains January 29, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Is President Donald Trump trying to devalue the dollar? That’s the question many in the City and across global markets were asking yesterday after Trump referred to the dollar dropping 1.3 per cent against a basket of currencies as “great”. The President’s triggered another 0.2 [...]
UK dividends jump in the final financial quarter of 2025 January 29, 2026 UK dividends rose in the final quarter of 2025, lifted by better than anticipated payouts across a range of sectors. Dividends jumped 1.3 per cent on a headline basis to £14.3bn, according to the latest dividend monitor figures from financial services company Computershare. Regular dividends, excluding one-off special payments, rose to £13.9bn, up 2.1 per [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Pound at 2021 high as Trump shrugs at dollar woes January 28, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Has the mining sector’s rally finally run out of steam? It appeared so on Tuesday, where City banks helped lift the FTSE 100 out of the red as miners across the board sank despite the ever-increasing price of precious metals. Fresnillo – the best performing [...]
Optimism picking up after ‘disruptive’ Budget, says Paragon chief January 27, 2026 Optimism in the UK is beginning to pick up, the boss of FTSE 250 lender Paragon has said, after sentiment was dampened by rampant tax speculation in the second half of 2025. Nigel Terrington, the boss of Paragon bank, told Morning Wire that despite it being the early days of 2026, the mood was beginning [...]
HSBC seals $300bn price tag as FTSE 100 banks rally January 27, 2026 Shares in Britain’s banking giants were helping lift the FTSE 100 out of the red this morning as blue-chip lenders rallied ahead of earnings season. HSBC topped the index’s risers with a gain of nearly three per cent to 1,278.20 – an all-time high for Europe’s largest lender. The rally came after Citigroup raised the [...]
S4 Capital shares surge as profit guidance improves January 26, 2026 Digital advertising company S4 Capital shares jumped in early morning trading after reporting that activity during the final quarter was ahead of its revised guidance. Shares surged 40.6 per cent to 27.2 pence as the company defied the challenging backdrop for advertising groups, but reported a fall in revenue. The company anticipates full year net [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Gold surges past $5,000, S4 Capital shares rocket January 26, 2026 Good morning from the Morning Wire liveblog team. While brokers and stock exchange managers are hoping for an IPO comeback in 2026 after a four-year drought, some investors are less keen to see a flood of fresh companies hitting the market. Speaking at an Innovate Finance panel discussion chaired by Morning Wire, James Codling, managing [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Babcock boss exits; Retail sales fall in golden quarter January 23, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Today is the final day of the World Economic Forum in Davos and what a ride it has been for capital markets. The FTSE 100 started Monday’s trading session at a cool 10,235.31 before shedding some points as Trump turned up pressure on his tariff [...]