The FTSE 100 rose to within touching distance of record highs on Thursday amid strong earnings and a jump in oil prices following Trump’s announcement of fresh sanctions on Russia.

London’s leading index was trading 0.6% higher at the time of writing.

UK investors enjoyed a plethora of encouraging earnings and trading updates from the FTSE 100 companies on Thursday, with Rentokil Initial and the London Stock Exchange Group among the best performers.

Higher oil prices played a part in the FTSE 100’s rally after Donald Trump targeted Russian oil producers with fresh sanctions, helping BP and Shell rise by between 3% and 4%.

“Oil markets have spiked higher after news emerged that the US was putting Russia’s major oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil, under sanctions due to the Kremlin’s failure to move toward peace in Ukraine,” said Steve Clayton, head of equity funds, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Brent crude has climbed 4% to almost $65 per barrel on the news, marking a dramatic recovery from recent weakness in crude markets. America’s new stance is in stark contrast to recent messaging from the White House and took markets by surprise. The effectiveness of the sanctions is yet to be proven, but President Trump has said that the Indian PM Narendra Modi has assured him that India will cease Russian oil purchases.”

The heavy weighting of Shell and BP played a leading role in the FTSE 100’s rally on Thursday. Their rally was compounded by favourable reactions to earnings for Rentokil Initial and the London Stock Exchange Group.

Rentokil was the FTSE 100’s top gainer after the pest control group signalled improvement in its North American business.

“Rat-catcher Rentokil surged after saying its US operations were in a much better place,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“The company had previously suffered from slower than expected growth in North America, causing investors to question if the 2022 acquisition of US pest control firm Terminix was ill-timed. A new game plan appears to be working, and Rentokil is now more upbeat on the region.”

Rentokil shares were 11% higher at the time of writing.

The London Stock Exchange Group gapped higher on a strong trading update in which EBITDA guidance was increased.

“LSEG shares are up 6% after reporting a strong period of growth, a boost to margin guidance accompanied by news of an investment by a consortium of banks into its Post Trade Services division and a new £1 billion share buy-back programme,” Steve Clayton said.

Unilever and Lloyds also reported on Thursday, but their updates were met with muted reactions. Lloyds confirmed the impact of the motor finance scandal, while Unilever posted reasonable volume growth.

Lloyds shares were steady on Thursday despite reporting a 36% hit to Q3 profit due to provisions for the motor finance scandal.

Profit for the nine months to September came in at £3.3 billion, down from £3.8 billion a year earlier, as an £800 million charge for motor finance commission arrangements weighed on third-quarter results.

The UK bank’s return on tangible equity fell to 11.9% for the period. Excluding the motor finance provision, the figure would have reached 14.6%.

The bank has now set aside £1.95 billion in total to cover potential liabilities related to motor finance commission arrangements.

Max Harper, Analyst at Third Bridge, explained what could have been “a decent set of results with a net income beat, driven by other income with NII below exceptions, has been heavily hit by new a motor provision sending profits down 36%. New GBP 800m provision brings total provisioning to GBP 1.95bn which should cover Lloyds for an outcome on the negative end of the spectrum.”

With the worst of the scandal now behind the industry, investors chose to look forward, and there was little reaction in shares on Thursday.

Despite the charges, the bank demonstrated underlying strength amid the higher interest rate environment. Net interest income climbed 6% to £10.1 billion, supported by a banking net interest margin of 3.04%, up 10 basis points year-on-year.

Operating costs edged up 3% to £7.2 billion, reflecting inflation and strategic investments, though cost discipline helped limit the increase. Operating lease depreciation rose 8% to £1.075 billion in line with fleet expansion.

Lending grew across the business. Customer loans increased £18 billion to £477.1 billion, with retail lending up £15.2 billion. Customer deposits rose £14 billion to £496.7 billion.

The bank has revised its 2025 guidance, now expecting underlying net interest income of around £13.6 billion and a return on tangible equity of approximately 12%, or 14% excluding the motor finance charge.

The market reaction suggests investors are pleased with the underlying business and are happy to take the view that the bank is well positioned to deliver growth, with a line drawn under motor finance redress concerns.

“On a positive note, the upgraded NII guidance to £13.6 billion from £13.5 billion is welcome, with their hedge continuing to perform well,” Harper said.

“Furthermore, acquiring the remainder of the Schroders Personal Wealth venture should be positive from an ‘other income’ perspective and allow Lloyds to capture revenue previously left on the table. However, our experts have highlighted concerns that Lloyds has a less affluent customer base than other banks, suggesting a need to acquire new, wealthier customers.”

Rentokil Initial shares jumped on Thursday after the pest control group revealed building momentum in its North American business.

The group posted quarterly revenue of $1.81 billion, marking year-on-year growth of 4.6% for the three months ending 30 September 2025. Organic revenue growth was 3.4% across the group.

Rentokil Initial shares rallied on the back of the update and were 9% higher at the time of writing.

The biggest driver of shares was improvement in the company’s North American division.

Following a period of uncertainity around the US and a major acquisition, the region is now showing signs of growth, with pest control services organic revenue growing 1.8% compared to just 0.1% in the first half, and total revenue growth for the region coming in at 4.6%.

Business services continued their strong trajectory with revenue growth of 14.4%.

Management attributed the North American upturn to enhanced digital marketing, improved sales execution and rigorous pricing discipline.

Internationally, revenue rose 4.6% with organic growth of 3.3%, up from 2.7% in the first half. The UK led the improvement with strong performances in pest control and property services, whilst southern European markets including Spain, Portugal and Greece continued to show momentum.

The group completed 21 bolt-on acquisitions year-to-date, generating $39 million in annualised pre-acquisition revenue. Separately, Rentokil finalised the sale of its French workwear business on 30 September for an enterprise value of €410 million, with net proceeds of €370 million.

“We are encouraged by our performance in the third quarter as the overall positive trends we described at our interim results have continued into the second half,” said Andy Ransom, Chief Executive of Rentokil Initial.

“In North America, it is pleasing to see the actions we have taken to improve sales execution and to evolve our digital marketing strategy are driving positive lead flow and overall sales momentum in the quarter. Our satellite branch openings remain on track to reach 150 by the end of the year, we have re-commenced the gradual integration of commercial branches during the quarter and our cost efficiency programme is on track.

“Current trading is in line with expectations and our outlook for the remainder of the year remains unchanged, as such, we expect to deliver FY 2025 financial results in line with market expectations.”

Unilever produced ‘broad-based growth’ in the third quarter of 2025, achieving underlying sales growth of 3.9% as it reconfirmed its full-year outlook ahead of the planned Ice Cream demerger.

The consumer goods giant reported turnover of €14.7 billion for Q3, down 3.5% year-on-year, primarily impacted by currency headwinds of 6.1% and net disposals of 1.0%.

Over the nine-month period, turnover reached €44.8 billion, down 3.3% from 2024.

Volume growth of 1.5% in the quarter is particularly encouraging. The group enjoyed continued strong demand across the portfolio, with the company’s Power Brands doing well with 4.4% underlying sales growth.

Beauty & Wellbeing led growth with underlying sales up 5.1% in Q3, generating €3.2 billion in turnover. Personal Care delivered solid performance with 4.1% underlying sales growth in the quarter, though faced currency challenges with turnover down 4.8% over nine months.

The soon-to-be spun-out ice Cream division achieved 3.7% underlying sales growth in Q3 (€2.3 billion), with a strong nine-month performance of 5.1%. The division’s demerger is expected to be completed in Q4 2025.

“Unilever delivered a solid third-quarter performance, with 4% sales growth in the period, landing the consumer goods company in the middle of its full-year target range,” said Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“That marks a small step up from the growth rates seen in the first half, helped by an improved performance in emerging markets and the continued strength of its Power Brands. These are a collection of 30 high-profile brands, including the likes of Dove, Domestos and Hellmann’s, and together contribute to around 75% of group sales.

“Unilever reported earlier in the week that its spin-off of its Ice Cream business, now known as The Magnum Ice Cream Company, has hit a speed bump in the form of the US Government shutdown.

“All preparation work is on track from Unilever’s side, but with federal employees temporarily laid off, there’s simply no one available to approve the paperwork. Unilever’s still confident of getting Magnum floated on the stock market before the end of 2025 and intends to provide investors with a revised timetable as soon as possible after the US government shutdown ends.”

Unilever shares were almost dead flat at the time of writing.

ITV shares were down sharply on Wednesday after Liberty Global cut its stake by half in a £135m share sale.

Liberty Global was the group’s largest shareholder, and while its involvement has kept takeover speculation alive, a formal bid never materialised.

After ten years of poor share price performance since Liberty initially bought a 6.4% stake in ITV, Liberty looks to have had enough and thrown in the towel on 50% of its holding.

However, this doesn’t mean that the prospect of a takeover has gone away. Over the years, ITV has been the subject of bid speculation concerning multiple parties that may now see an opportunity to pounce.

“Liberty Global halving its stake in ITV is a significant development as it effectively removes a potential blocker if someone makes a takeover offer for the media group,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.

“Liberty Global previously held 10% of ITV which effectively gave it a front seat to either consider a bid down the line, or to stop others swooping in on the cheap. It originally bought a 6.4% stake from Sky and then topped up, citing the stake purely as an investment.

“Over the years, Liberty Global showed no interest in wanting to own ITV outright but it stayed put on the shareholder register, quietly observing as the media group was subject to perennial bid talk.”

ITV shares were 8% lower at the time of writing.

The FTSE 100 was firmly on the front foot on Wednesday as traders digested a softer-than-expected UK inflation reading that pointed to further interest rate cuts by the BoE before the end of the year.

London’s leading index was trading at 0.9% higher at the time of writing.

UK CPI came in below the psychologically key 4% level, and although the 3.8% reading is far above the Bank’s target rate of 2%, it was lower than expected, and markets appear to deem it acceptable to cut rates. Interest rate futures quickly priced in additional rate cuts later this year.

“A lower-than-expected reading of UK inflation makes a near-term cut to interest rates more likely and this boosted housebuilders,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould

“It also led to weakness in the pound which is typically good news for the FTSE 100 because it increases the relative value of the overseas earnings which dominate the index.”

Persimmon, Barratt Developments and Berkeley Group rose between 2%-3%.

Barclays was the top FTSE 100 riser after the bank released an encouraging set of Q3 results and announced a fresh £500m share buyback. The bank did reveal a higher provision for the motor finance scandal, but it was far lower than that of its peers.

“If investors were looking for some reassurance after a tricky little spell for the banking sector then Barclays has provided it,” Russ Mould explained.

“Barclays was caught up in market concerns about the US private credit situation last week, with the company having some direct exposure to the collapse of sub-prime auto lender and car retailer Tricolor. It also has the broadest US exposure among its London-listed peers.”

Barclays shares were over 4% higher at the time of writing.

Reckitt Benckiser was another FTSE 100 group to report on Wednesday, and its shares received a strong reaction in early trade. However, gains quickly turned to losses despite their reporting surprisingly strong third-quarter sales growth, which will go a long way toward squashing fears of stagnation. 

“Core like-for-like sales growth of 6.7% was well ahead of market forecasts, with the beat driven by impressive growth in emerging markets,” explained Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“The group’s portfolio has been streamlined in recent years, but there’s something to be said for focusing on strong brands, with household names like Dettol, Durex, and Vanish all continuing to impress.

“The only slight disappointment was that full-year guidance wasn’t raised, but with such a strong start to the second half, full-year targets look well within reach.”