London close: FTSE ends lower as investors eye Warsh speech

(Sharecast News) - London stocks fell on Thursday as concerns about sticky US inflation overshadowed strong quarterly earnings from US chip maker Nvidia, and as investors eyed a hotly-anticipated speech by new Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh.

The FTSE 100 closed down 0.8% at 10,792.54, while Brent crude was up 1.1% at $88.80 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was 0.6% higher at $82.69.

Investors were mulling the latest earnings from Nvidia, which reported a doubling of revenues in the second quarter and delivered sales guidance well ahead of market forecasts.

Patrick Munnelly at Tickmill Group said: "Despite upbeat earnings and buoyant guidance from US chip giant Nvidia, market sentiment remained decidedly cautious as investors contended with lingering geopolitical anxieties in the Middle East and uncertainty surrounding Federal Reserve interest rate policy ahead of the Jackson Hole summit."

In equity markets, PPHE Hotel Group slumped even as it reported a rise in first-half profit and revenue, pointing to a strong performance from its UK properties.

On the downside, Prudential fell despite raising its share buyback programme after reporting strong first-half results, which showed adjusted operating pre-tax profit at the insurance and asset management company were up 10% at $1.52bn. The firm added $300m to its planned share repurchases, taking its total buyback plan for the year to $1.5bn. The interim dividend was also increased by 15%.

Zigup was also in the red as it traded without entitlement to the dividend.

On the upside, Computacenter shot to the top of the FTSE 100 as Peel Hunt upgraded the shares to 'buy' from 'add' and hiked the price target to 6,000p from 4,400p.

Halfords surged as the motoring and cycling products retailer lifted its profit outlook for the year, having been boosted in part by unusually warm weather. Based on a "strong" performance in the year to date, the company now expects FY27 underlying pre-tax profit of between £55m and £65m, ahead of current consensus of £52.6m and a range of range of £48.9m to £55.1m.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,792.54 -0.79%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 24,898.86 0.00%

techMARK (TASX) 6,214.99 0.76%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Computacenter (CCC) 5,625.00p 7.86%

The Sage Group (SGE) 1,103.50p 3.96%

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 8,980.00p 3.36%

Relx plc (REL) 2,668.00p 3.17%

Experian (EXPN) 3,045.00p 2.63%

Halma (HLMA) 3,672.00p 1.55%

Compass Group 11 (CPG) 30.49p 1.36%

Metlen Energy & Metals (MTLN) 49.44p 1.23%

Pearson (PSON) 1,229.50p 0.99%

Convatec Group (CTEC) 229.60p 0.88%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Entain (ENT) 511.00p -3.66%

LondonMetric Property (LMP) 189.40p -2.72%

Prudential (PRU) 1,013.50p -2.50%

GSK (GSK) 1,852.00p -2.50%

Games Workshop Group (GAW) 18,320.00p -2.24%

Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 4,564.00p -2.19%

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (DI) (CCEP) 7,910.00p -2.16%

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 109.30p -2.15%

British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,152.00p -2.03%

Diageo (DGE) 1,701.50p -2.02%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Halfords Group (HFD) 267.00p 10.79%

Oakley Capital Investments Limited (DI) (OCI) 544.00p 3.42%

XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,862.00p 3.33%

Softcat (SCT) 2,112.00p 3.33%

International Workplace Group (IWG) 188.50p 3.29%

Partners Group Private Equity Limited. (EUR) (PEY) 7.68p 3.23%

Bytes Technology Group (BYIT) 437.00p 2.68%

Discoverie Group (DSCV) 822.00p 2.62%

GB Group (GBG) 158.60p 2.59%

Gamma Communications (GAMA) 1,156.00p 2.57%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

PPHE Hotel Group Ltd (PPH) 1,526.00p -6.95%

Zigup (ZIG) 435.00p -5.74%

Genuit Group (GEN) 279.60p -4.12%

Hays (HAS) 73.10p -3.88%

Dr. Martens (DOCS) 77.40p -3.73%

Vistry Group (VTY) 303.00p -3.44%

Ocado Group (OCDO) 241.40p -3.36%

Elementis (ELM) 175.00p -2.78%

Michael Page (PAGE) 217.20p -2.51%

RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) 2,780.00p -2.46%