The FTSE 100 fell victim to poor corporate updates on Thursday, driving a retreat from the record closing high notched up yesterday.
Nothing goes up in a straight line and disappointing results from Centrica and Rio Tinto ensured London’s leading index didn’t get a head of its self after storming session on Wednesday.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.3% on Thursday but still comfortably above the 10,600 mark.
“Investors got a nasty shock from Centrica’s results, causing the shares to slump and drag the UK market down in the process,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.
“While Centrica is in the bottom half of the FTSE 100 by weighting, a large downward movement from its shares still had meaningful influence on the UK stock index.
“The UK market was also dragged down by the market reaction to Rio Tinto’s results, albeit that looked more like profit taking after a strong rally than anything worrying in its figures.”
Centrica was at the bottom of the leaderboard, losing 5%, after reporting 2025 results. Centrica’s results were a huge disappointment for investors who were licking their wounds after the group reported a halving of EBITDA and total destruction of free cash flow.
Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “On the face of it, British Gas owner Centrica’s headline numbers were a tough read as energy markets adjusted to more normalised conditions. Lower commodity prices and lower energy price volatility weighed on performance, causing total profits to fall sharply.”
Rio Tinto was also among the losers after reporting strong earnings, but not strong enough to warrant further upside. Antofagasta set a high bar for mining financial performance earlier this week; unfortunately, Rio Tinto hasn’t been able to match it.
“Rio Tinto’s full year numbers are solid operationally but short on earnings fireworks,” said Adam Vettese, market analyst for eToro.
“Copper-equivalent production climbed 8%, with copper output up 11% thanks to the Oyu Tolgoi ramp up, while EBITDA rose 9% on tighter costs and higher volumes. Management held the dividend steady at $6.5bn, the tenth year at the top of the 40-60% payout range, but there’s no buyback boost to excite shareholders like other sector peers.
“On the downside, underlying earnings were flat, net profit down 14%, and free cash flow off 28% as capex and provisions bit. Iron ore still dominates earnings, so China risk lingers even as copper and aluminium grow.”
Rio Tinto shares were around 3% weaker at the time of writing.
RELX continued its recovery on Thursday, gaining 4%, and was the FTSE 100’s best performer. Mondi shares were 2% higher after the group released earnings that showed some signs of stabilisation.