16:02 — FTSE Holds 2% Gain as Gilts Rally; Whitbread and Harbour Energy Slide Late
The FTSE 100 holds at 10,441.41, up 2.18%, with most of the London index's constituents in positive territory as the afternoon session extended the morning's recovery, without necessarily adding materially to it.
The index has traded in a narrow band since midday, consolidating gains rather than pressing higher.
Whitbread slipped to the bottom of the FTSE 100 losers, down 6.3% to 2,234p, with Harbour Energy close behind at -6.1% to 275.6p.
Endeavour Mining has emerged as a notable late gainer, climbing 8.35% to 4,643p, joining Antofagasta (+8.55% to 3,866p) and Anglo American (+6.92% to 3,811p) in a broad advance across the mining sector that has been one of the session's most consistent themes.
Gold continues to extend its run, now at $4,715.1, up 3.21%, with the dollar index at 97.923 and the VIX at 16.93.
Wall Street remains firmly bid, the S&P 500 at 7,345.03 (+1.18%) and the Nasdaq at 25,680.824 (+1.4%), providing a stable backdrop into the London close.
15:02 — Computacenter Surges 14.5% as Reach Tumbles on Trading Update; Barclays Rebounds
Computacenter is the standout mover in the FTSE 100 this afternoon, climbing 14.5% to 3,828p, the index's top gain, while Morgan Sindall extends its advance to 7.3% at 4,808p and Barclays rebounds 6.6% to 447.3p, the latter a pointed reversal of the early-session financial sector anxiety that followed HSBC's results.
Reach has dropped 9.9% to 50.9p after its trading update, making it the sharpest faller among the session's named movers.
The FTSE 100's gains concentrated amongst the miners and financials. Elswhere, meanwhile, Mondi was the index's heaviest faller, losing 11.1%, to 748.2p. Also fallng was Man Group, down 7.3%, and Ithaca Energy, off 7.2%,.
The Dow Jones is up 1.1% and the S&P 500 holds at +0.85%, providing a steady Wall Street floor as London moves into the final hour of the cash session.
13:47 — London Pivots to Wall Street as Next Beats, Diageo Holds, and Oil Dips Below $100
The FTSE 100 holds at 10,445, up 2.21%, as the US open comes onto the horizon, with the afternoon's recovery built on three pillars: Trump's pause of Project Freedom naval escorts, oil falling below $100 a barrel as Tehran signals willingness to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and Wall Street's previous close at record highs on AMD's earnings beat.
The S&P 500 finished at 7,259 (+0.81%) and the Nasdaq at 25,309 (+0.96%); futures positioning into today's New York open will test whether that momentum holds.
Next delivered the session's cleanest corporate beat. First-quarter full-price sales rose 6.2% against a 4.0% forecast, with the first five weeks of the year running at +11.8%. The £28m sales overachievement added £8m of profit, lifting full-year guidance to £1,218m.
The retailer flagged Middle East disruption as a source of ongoing cost pressure but said UK price increases would not exceed 0.6%. eToro noted the quarter came "out of the blocks at a sprint," said Diageo's Q3 update was more measured: reported net sales rose 2.3% to $4.5bn, with organic growth of just 0.3% as strength in Europe, Latin America, and Africa offset continued weakness in North America. Full-year guidance was reiterated.
Smith+Nephew added a $500m buyback alongside its Q1 update, with revenue of $1,501m representing underlying growth of 3.1%, or 4.7% on an adjusted daily-sales basis stripping out one fewer trading day. Growth was broad-based across all business units, with Sports Medicine strength offsetting softer US Knee Implants. The full-year outlook is unchanged.
Computacenter leads the FTSE 100 gainers at +14.5%, with Antofagasta and Anglo American both up more than 8% as the commodity rotation extends. On the downside, Mondi has dropped 11.1% and Barclays has recovered to +6.6%, underscoring that the financial sector has absorbed the HSBC shock without contagion.
06:00 — Wall Street Holds Near Records as AMD Beats; Oil Eases but Gilt Yields Stay at 1998 Highs
Wall Street closed Tueday firmly in positive territory, with the S&P 500 rising 0.81% to 7,259.2 and the Nasdaq adding 0.96% to 25,309.3, as AMD's after-hours earnings beat extended the session's gains.
AMD reported first-quarter EPS of $1.37 on revenue of $10.25bn, sending its shares up more than 6%. Dan Ives at Wedbush said the results showed "no cracks in AI demand on the chips/hardware front," framing 2026 as a year of accelerating enterprise deployment.
The Strait of Hormuz remains the session's geopolitical fault line. Trump announced a pause in US naval escorts of commercial shipping through the strait, citing progress toward a peace deal with Iran, a move that has temporarily steadied crude, though Brent remained close to $115 a barrel.
Kyle Rodda at Capital.com described the market's posture as "glass half full," warning that asymmetric downside risk persists if the ceasefire frays.
Gold held at $4,661.40, up 2.03% overnight, with the dollar index slipping 0.5% to 97.953.
UK gilt yields closed Tuesday at their highest level since 1998, driven by a combination of Middle East inflation fears and domestic political uncertainty around the Labour leadership.
In Asia, the Nikkei has added 0.38% in early Asian trade.
05:02 — FTSE in focus after tough start to the week; Gold hits $4,655 on Middle East fears
The FTSE 100 closed its previous session down 1.46% at 10,212.77, and the backdrop heading into Wednesday's open is dominated by two interlocking forces: HSBC's worse-than-expected first-quarter results and escalating Middle East tensions that pushed Brent crude back toward $115 a barrel and driven gold to $4,654.80, up 1.89% overnight.
HSBC reported pre-tax profit of $9.4bn for the first quarter, down from $9.5bn a year earlier, as a $1.3bn hit to profits, combining a fraud-related charge in the UK private credit sector and additional provisions tied to Middle East exposure, overwhelmed a 6% rise in revenue to $18.6bn. Matt Britzman at Hargreaves Lansdown said the underlying top-line strength got eaten up before it reached the bottom line, with credit losses heavier than expected and costs running above consensus as performance pay, inflation and technology spend bit into profits. The shares fell 6% on the news.
The geopolitical backdrop is clearly shaping the market, with Middle East situation heading in the wrong direction from the market's perspective, and oil's move toward $115 telling much of the story. Gilt yields have risen to their highest since 1998, with political uncertainty in Westminster adding a domestic dimension to the pressure on UK assets.
Against that, meanwhile, Wall Street closed positively overnight, the S&P 500 added 0.81% to 7,259.2 on Tuesday, and the Nasdaq up 0.96% to 25,309.26.
The dollar index sat at 98.313, fractionally softer, while the VIX ticked up to 17.43 despite the US equity gains.
In crypto, Bitcoin and Ethereum are both firmer, up around 1.3% apiece.
