FTSE 100 today: latest UK stock market news

Shareholders in AstraZenecahave had a rough ride this week, to say the least. The drugs company is mired in a four-day losing streak that started on Tuesday when the market learnt of disappointing late-stage trial results for a lung cancer drug.
Dato-DXd, the medicine that is being developed jointly with Daiichi Sankyo, the Japanese pharmaceuticals company, was found to have helped some lung cancer patients in the trial to live longer, but overall the treatment “did not reach statistical significance”.
This prompted analysts and investors to question the possible benefits of the treatment, which is among the key drugs in the FTSE 100 company’s drugs pipeline.
Deutsche Numis has now become the latest investment bank to air its concerns, urging its clients to sell the shares. The German bank, while pointing out that it had been a long-time supporter of AstraZeneca’s oncology-driven innovation story, said it was hard to accept that Dato-DXd “was not going to be the next breakthrough in lung cancer we had hoped last summer”.
Emmanuel Papadakis, its analyst, said that the stock’s risk-reward opportunity had “become outright challenging on a six-to-twelve-month view and, given that we remain materially below mid-term consensus, let alone guidance, we don’t think that is reflected in valuation”. As such Papadakis removed his “hold” recommendation on AstraZeneca in favour of a “sell” and reduced the target price to £105.
The downgrade caused the shares to drop a further 122p, or 1 per cent, to £119.28, taking the multinational’s losses over the week to 5.7 per cent, its worst weekly performance since February.
AstraZeneca, the most valuable company on the London Stock Exchange, held back the FTSE 100, but not enough to prevent a positive end to the week. With more than three quarters of stocks ending the session in the green, the index came away with a gain of 32.12 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 8,273.09 on the day, taking its weekly rise to 1.1 per cent. The more UK-focused FTSE 250 fared even better, improving 199.60 points, or 1 per cent, to 20,895,37 for a 2 per cent rise over the week.
Goldminers did a lot of the heavy lifting as prices of the precious metal hit a record high. Fresnillo, the Mexican precious metals miner, rose 30½p, or 5.7 per cent, to 568p; Endeavour Mining, which announced that it had achieved commercial production at two mines in Senegal and Ivory Coast, advanced 175p, or 10.5 per cent, to £18.36; and Hochschild Mining closed up 7p, or 4 per cent, at 182½p.
Entain, which delighted the market this week by saying that its British online revenues had returned to year-on-year growth sooner than expected, built on recent gains thanks to a bullish note from HSBC. Analysts at the bank said that although they did harbour some reservations around its American business, Entain’s update had given them optimism about the rest of the group. “There is value in Entain and the ship is steadily being turned around,” they said. “We expect that this is one to back.”
The bank’s vote of confidence helped the Ladbrokes and Sportingbet owner to secure its sixth consecutive session of gains, rising 20½p, or 2.9 per cent, to 734½p.
Rentokil Initial was the focus of a less positive note from Stifel, which cut its rating to “hold” amid concerns that “near-term trading trends are likely to remain subdued”. However, the shares, which have fallen by a fifth this week after a profit warning, ended the day higher by 6p, or 1.6 per cent, at 378p as investors took advantage of the recent weakness.
There were some interesting moves away from the main market. Volvere, an investment company that specialises in turning around troubled businesses, jumped 90p, or 6.4 per cent, to £15 after reporting a sharp rise in revenues and pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of June. Volvere, which owns Shire Foods, said the frozen pie and pasties maker had delivered record half-year revenues of £22.2 million.
Indices rallied on Friday, capping a strong week, as investors raised their bets of a bigger interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week. The Dow Jones Industrial average, up 297.01 points, or 0.7 per cent, on the day to 41,393.78, rose by 2.6 per cent over the five days. The S&P 500, up 30.26 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 5,626.02 on Friday, did even better with a weekly gain of 4 per cent, its best week since early November. The Nasdaq, though, was the outright winner of the week. It was up 114.30 points, or 0.7 per cent, on the day at 17,683.98, making a weekly rise of 6 per cent, its best since mid-March 2022.