(Sharecast News) - London stocks rose in early trade on Thursday as investors waded through another barrage of corporate news and mulled the latest policy decision from the Federal Reserve.
At 0835 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 9,166.94.
The Fed kept the target range for the federal funds rate unchanged on Wednesday at between 4.25% and 4.50%, as widely expected.
Rabobank said: "Powell's press conference has increased our confidence that we are going to see only one rate cut this year, but it has decreased our confidence that it will be in September. However, for now this will remain our base case. The risk to a later cut has increased though. It will all depend on the incoming data between now and the September meeting.
"Looking ahead to next year, we expect the Fed to accelerate the cutting cycle as Trump's impact on monetary policy is set to increase as today's dissenters Waller and Bowman are likely joined by two additional Trump-loyalists on the Board of Governors."
Investors were also digesting better-than-expected results overnight from Microsoft and Facebook owner Meta.
Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Meta and Microsoft turned over a new chapter in the AI story last night. Both companies crushed it, with debates around whether AI is delivering tangible returns starting to fade into history. This is the next industrial revolution, and it's just getting started."
In UK equity markets, aerospace and defence engineer Rolls-Royce surged to the top of the FTSE 100 as it raised its full-year guidance after a strong first half, in which underlying revenues grew by double-digits and operating profits surged by 50%.
The company now expects to book a full-year underlying operating profit of 3.1bn-3.2bn for 2025, up from previous guidance of 2.7bn-2.9bn, while the free cash flow target was upped to 3.0bn-3.1bn from 2.7bn-2.9bn.
Rentokil, St James's Place and Schroders also gained after results, while energy giant Shell gushed higher as it reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings but still sharply lower than a year ago on the back of weak oil and gas prices.
Adjusted earnings came in at $4.26bn for the three month period, beating average estimates of $3.74bn in a company-compiled poll, but down 24% on 2024's $6.3bn. For the half year earnings were down 30% to $9.8bn.
Shares in financial services firm Just Group rocketed after it agreed to be bought by US-based Brookfield Wealth Solutions in a 2.4bn deal.
JTC and Elementis rose after a trading update and results, respectively.
On the downside, Mondi slid as the paper and packaging group warned that an uncertain economic environment would continue to impact trading in the second half of the year and reported a fall in interim profits.
Pets at Home slumped as it cut its full-year profit guidance, pointing to "subdued" retail market growth rates.
Standard Chartered lost ground even as it posted a better-than-expected 26% jump in first-half pre-tax profit to $4.38bn.
Retailer Next fell even as it lifted guidance for full-price sales in the second half and guidance for full-year pre-tax profit after a better-than-expected second quarter.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 9,166.94 0.33%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,901.10 0.57%
techMARK (TASX) 5,270.36 -0.38%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 1,086.50p 9.97%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 379.90p 9.61%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,236.50p 5.73%
Schroders (SDR) 400.80p 2.77%
Shell (SHEL) 2,753.00p 2.76%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 518.00p 1.93%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 102.05p 1.59%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,029.00p 1.48%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 234.40p 1.47%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,046.00p 1.45%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Mondi (MNDI) 1,091.50p -6.59%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,894.50p -5.01%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,412.00p -3.84%
Haleon (HLN) 351.00p -3.81%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,168.00p -2.82%
Glencore (GLEN) 303.05p -2.78%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,394.00p -2.52%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,060.00p -2.11%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 81.84p -2.03%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 8,708.00p -1.58%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Just Group (JUST) 211.50p 67.86%
JTC (JTC) 912.00p 10.95%
Chrysalis Investments Limited NPV (CHRY) 120.00p 7.14%
Elementis (ELM) 168.80p 4.98%
Discoverie Group (DSCV) 716.00p 4.83%
Drax Group (DRX) 710.00p 4.72%
Chemring Group (CHG) 555.00p 2.21%
Allianz Technology Trust (ATT) 474.00p 2.16%
NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red (NESF) 76.50p 2.14%
Workspace Group (WKP) 407.00p 2.13%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 227.40p -6.57%
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 77.50p -4.38%
Helios Towers (HTWS) 114.00p -3.88%
Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 1,108.00p -3.74%
Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 226.50p -3.62%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 2,274.00p -2.49%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 127.60p -2.30%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 273.40p -1.80%
Mony Group (MONY) 201.20p -1.18%
HICL Infrastructure (HICL) 119.60p -1.16%
40.90 (0.45%)
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