The FTSE 100 soared on Tuesday as investors digested a raft of corporate updates and readied themselves for a string of risk events later in the week.
London’s leading index was trading 0.7% at 9,149 at the time of writing and had recovered almost all of the prior days losses.
It was another busy day of corporate updates from FTSE 100 companies on Tuesday, with Barclays, AstraZeneca and Games Workshop among the firms issuing earnings.
Barclays shares followed a similar path to other FTSE 100 banks on Tuesday by reporting very respectable results but seeing its share price muted in response. Even a £1 billion share buyback wasn’t enough to inject some enthusiasm into the stock. That said, shares were 1.7% higher at the time of writing and continued the strong run going into results.
“Barclays has turned in a respectable performance with notable growth on the corporate and investment banking side. Investors are being treated to a new share buyback programme and a small increase in the dividend,” explained Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
“On paper, that should have been enough to win over the market, but the shares have slipped on the results. Investors will be disappointed at the lack of upgraded earnings guidance for the full year, particularly as second quarter profit beat expectations.”
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca, London’s largest stock by market cap, posted characteristically strong Q2 and H1 results on Tuesday, sending shares 3.5% higher. Astra’s H1 revenue rose 11% on a CER basis, driven by particularly strong sales growth in oncology products.
“Our strong momentum in revenue growth continued through the first half of the year and the delivery from our broad and diverse pipeline has been excellent, with 12 positive key Phase III trial readouts including for baxdrostat, gefurulimab, and Tagrisso in just the past few weeks,” said Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca.
“As we enter our next phase of growth, we have pledged $50 billion to continue to grow in the US, which includes the largest manufacturing investment in AstraZeneca’s history, set for Virginia. This landmark investment reflects not only America’s importance but also our confidence in our innovative medicines to transform global health and power AstraZeneca’s ambition to deliver $80 billion revenue by 2030.”
Investors will look forward to further updates on the development of their pipeline after a string of success stories in H1 as they progress towards their long-term revenue goals.
Games Workshop
Games Workshop was the FTSE 100’s top gainer as investors cheered record results. There’s no stopping this tabletop games specialist. The group releases new products and inks new licensing agreements in 2024, helping revenue for the last year reach £617.5m and profit before tax rise to £262m. Investors were delighted and shares rose more than 5%.
Looking forward to the rest of the week, investors will have one eye on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on Wednesday and the July Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday for clues as to how the economy is performing and how the Federal Reserve will approach monetary policy in the second half of 2025.