The FTSE 100 held firm on Friday as investors plotted their next move after an action-packed week of monetary policy.

London’s leading index was gently undulating between positive and negative in early trade on Friday.

Investors were also picking through the latest instalment of UK economic data. UK retail sales increased by 0.5% as GfK consumer confidence came in at -19, which was worse than economists’ expectations.

One wonders how dire the UK’s economic data needs to become before the government or central bank takes action to support the economy.

Although UK retail sales showed signs of positivity, consumer confidence took another kicking, largely due to concerns around the upcoming budget.

“UK markets opened a touch higher this morning, but the calm masks a tug-of-war in the data. UK shoppers delivered another surprise in August, with retail sales up 0.5% for the second month running, outpacing forecasts as sunny weather drove demand for clothes and food treats,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“But while tills were busy, the mood is anything but buoyant, with consumer confidence slipping to its lowest in three months, as looming tax hikes cast a long shadow. The disconnect is clear, with consumers happy to spend now, perhaps before the Chancellor comes calling in November, but sentiment on the economic outlook remains firmly in the red.”

Soggy economic data weighed on UK investor sentiment on Friday, with many holding off on taking positions despite the US closing at a record high again yesterday.

Having outperformed the S&P 500 during tariff volatility, the FTSE 100 is starting to slip back into its position as an income option as US stocks power to fresh highs.

US tech stocks led gains in the US overnight, with names such as Nvidia, Intel and a raft of quantum stocks powering higher.

The bullish session for US stocks overnight fed into the FTSE 100’s riskier sectors as miners gained on Friday. Antofagasta, Glencore and Anglo were again favoured by investors.

However, their strength was offset by the decline of housebuilders and retailers.

The London Stock Exchange Group was the top faller with losses of 2.8%.

Fresnillo and Endeavour Mining were the FTSE 100’s top risers as investors bought into the precious metals miners, with the gold price holding its own after central bank decisions this week.

IG Group Holdings has struck a deal to acquire Independent Reserve, one of Australia’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, for an initial enterprise value of A$178.0m (£86.8m).

The bolt-on acquisition is part of IG’s crypto expansion strategy across the Asia Pacific region. It also follows IG’s acquisition of Freetrade, as the group grows the number of brands within its stable.

The transaction will see IG initially acquire a 70% stake in Independent Reserve for A$109.6m (£53.4m), excluding the group’s expected share of acquired surplus cash.

A further A$15.0m (£7.3m) payment is contingent on performance targets being met in FY26, potentially taking the total consideration for the majority stake to A$124.6m (£60.8m).

Independent Reserve’s existing leadership team and employees will retain a collective 30% shareholding at completion. IG has secured a call option to purchase this remaining stake, with valuation based on performance metrics in FY27 and FY28.

“This acquisition marks an important step in IG’s crypto strategy in a key region,” Matt Macklin, Managing Director of Asia Pacific & Middle East at IG, explained.

“Independent Reserve is one of Australia’s largest and fastest-growing digital asset exchanges with established regulatory foundations, proven technology and strong leadership. I am delighted that the Independent Reserve team will join IG as they embark on their next phase of growth.”

The Australian exchange’s revenue for the 12 months ending 30 June 2025 hit A$35.3m (£17.7m), representing an 88% increase on the previous fiscal year and a compound annual growth rate of 70% over two years. EBITDA for the same period was A$9.9m (£5.0m).

Independent Reserve serves both retail and institutional customers across 34 digital assets in multiple currencies. The platform averaged around 11,600 monthly active customers in the year to June 2025—a 60% year-on-year increase.

Approximately 76% of revenue was generated in Australia, with Singapore contributing the remaining 24%.

Nvidia has invested $5bn in Intel as part of an AI infrastructure collaboration that aims to ‘accelerate applications and workloads across hyperscale, enterprise and consumer markets’.

Intel shares jumped over 20% on the news.

Nvidia’s investment comes hot on the heels of an $8.9bn US government investment in Intel aimed at boosting domestic semiconductor production.

The Nvidia and Intel deal will see Intel build NVIDIA-custom x86 CPUs for use in data centres and manufacture new x86 RTX SOCs for personal computing.

“AI is powering a new industrial revolution and reinventing every layer of the computing stack — from silicon to systems to software. At the heart of this reinvention is NVIDIA’s CUDA architecture,” said NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang.

“This historic collaboration tightly couples NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing stack with Intel’s CPUs and the vast x86 ecosystem — a fusion of two world-class platforms. Together, we will expand our ecosystems and lay the foundation for the next era of computing.”

Nvidia paid $23.28 per Intel share, meaning they are already around 30% to the good on their investment.

But as analyst Matt Britzman explains, the investment is really a sideshow to the deeper collaboration that should appease the US President, who has made it clear he would like more chipmakers to manufacture their products in the US.

“Nvidia’s $5 billion investment in Intel is less about money and more about influence. The deal deepens cooperation between two US chip giants, with Intel set to use Nvidia’s GPU technology and Nvidia gaining a stronger foothold in domestic chip production,” explained Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“For Intel, this is another welcome boost, both financially and strategically, as it leans on Nvidia to stay competitive. But even with the US government and Nvidia on side, it’s one step short of a home run for the foundry business, which is struggling to attract the major customers it needs to succeed against the might of TSMC.

“For Nvidia, the financial impact is small, but the political upside is big: this move aligns with US policy and could help ease restrictions on selling advanced chips to China. It also signals a shift in industry dynamics, with Arm losing some exclusivity and AMD facing more pressure. In short, this is a strategic alliance with geopolitical undertones, not just a balance-sheet transaction.”

The FTSE 100 gained on Thursday as investors digested US and UK interest rate decisions and the near-term trajectory for borrowing costs.

London’s leading index was trading 0.2% higher shortly after the Bank of England held rates at 4%, despite growing weakness in the UK jobs market. In contrast, the Fed decided to move to cut rates to stave off the impact of low job creation.

There is a clear divergence between the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England’s monetary policy, with the BoE handcuffed by stubbornly high rates of inflation.

“The Bank of England has decided to keep rates unchanged, highlighting the challenge of weak jobs data and stubborn inflation pressures. Cutting too soon could lead to higher inflation expectations, while holding too long risks slowing growth further,” explained Lale Akoner, Global Market Analyst at eToro.

“With household long-term inflation expectations having risen to 3.8% – the highest since 2009 – the Bank remains cautious, sticking to its “gradual and careful” approach. Alongside the no-cut decision, the Bank said that they would slow down the place of their QT, reducing bond sales to £70bn and skewing away from longer-dated gilts.”

It’s conceivable that the positivity in UK stocks today was down to the Federal Reserve cutting rates and signalling a series of further cuts through the rest of the year.

“The Fed’s 25bp cut landed as expected, but the dot plot stole the show – pointing to another 50bp of easing this year, even as policymakers remain miles apart on the path forward,” Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown said.

“Inflation is still sticky, jobs are cooling, and the committee now faces a delicate balancing act as its two mandates (jobs and inflation) pull in opposite directions. The S&P 500 closed flat, but futures are flashing green this morning as investors bet that, for now, rate cuts are a tailwind worth chasing.”

The S&P 500’s flat close overnight masked a rip-roaring rally in US small and midcap deeptech stocks in the quantum computing and AI fields, ignited by hopes of more interest rate cuts to come.

US futures were pointing to a higher open, and mega-cap tech looked to be joining the fray.

There was a risk-on feel to UK stocks despite the BoE’s inaction. Miners were firmly bid with Anglo American and Antofagasta rising more than 1%.

RELX was the top riser with a 3% gain.

UK investors wanting their slice of any US tech rally in the wake of the Fed’s rate cut picked up Polar Capital Technology Trust, helping shares rise more than 2%.

Next was the FTSE 100’s top faller after the retailer warned a slowing UK economy could impact the group’s growth. That said, the group seems to be coping just fine with current conditions as profits rose more than 10% in their first half. Perhaps today’s pullback will prove to be a buying opportunity for Next shares.

Tekcapital shares soared on Thursday after its portfolio company Guident filed its S-1 registration for a proposed NASDAQ IPO amid surging interest in autonomous vehicle listings.

Tekcapital shares were 21% higher at the time of writing as the filing confirmed the firm as one of the leading UK vehicles for investors to gain exposure to the rapidly expanding autonomous vehicle market. 

Guident has demonstrated extensive use cases of its technology during preparations for the IPO. A West Palm Beach deployment showed how shuttle buses fitted with Guident’s technology can navigate and carry passengers through busy urban centres. A contract with a waste disposal company for its Watchbot surveillance robot underscores the versatility of Guident’s autonomous technology and its broad potential applications in industry.

It’s no surprise, then, that Tekcapital and Guident are pressing the accelerator on IPO plans, especially given the fertile IPO environment for US tech shares currently.

With the total addressable market for autonomous vehicles expected to run into the hundreds of billions by 2030, Guident is preparing its IPO amid a period of explosive growth and investor interest in the area.

Many autonomous vehicle IPOs have attracted multi-billion dollar valuations.

The updated S-1 signals that preparations for Guident’s IPO are gathering pace as the firm moves to take advantage of favourable market conditions. Last night’s interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve will add to investors’ optimism and help Guident achieve a higher valuation.

In a sign of intent, Guident now has two investment bankers working on the deal with Dominari Securities, joining Prime Number Capital as a book runner.

The IPO price has yet to be set, and investors can expect confirmation in the run-up to the listing. In terms of timing, there is no exact date for the IPO yet. Given that the initial filing was made some months ago, it would suggest that much of the review work has already been completed.

Based on historical timelines after an S-1 filing, Guident could be a public company trading on NASDAQ in around 4 – 8 weeks.

Implications for Tekcapital shares

For Tekcapital shareholders, Guident’s IPO will serve to underline the deep value already available in the current share price.

One can only speculate about the potential value of Guident on a successful IPO. What we do know is that Tekcapital previously valued the company at around $20m on its balance sheet. 

You can assume that Guident’s listing valuation will be higher than this. 

Should Guident list at a $50m valuation, Tek’s stake would be worth in the region of $35m, before the impact of any dilution. This is around double Tekcapital’s current market cap. However, it is feasible that the listing valuation is closer to $100m, or even above.

We must then take into consideration Tek’s other portfolio companies MicroSalt, GenIP, Lucyd, and Belluscura. These are valued at around $40m. 

The net result for investors at this stage is that they are looking at a Tekcapital share price likely trading at a discount of around 75% – 90% of the potential value of Tekcapital’s portfolio in around two months’ time. 

We must then also consider the shift in sentiment around Tekcapital shares once Guident is listed. Tekcapital will no longer be in the position of having to support portfolio companies with regular placings. All portfolio companies will be standing on their own two feet, significantly reducing the burden on Tek’s cash pile.

Factoring in constraints on selling entire portfolio holdings due to lock-ins and liquidity considerations when deriving a potential TEK share price, a bear case for Tekcapital shares would sensibly be 2x – 3x higher than where they are now, and a bull case could see 5x – 7x.

Next shares fell on Thursday as the retailer warned a slow UK economy could soften growth despite recording bumper sales and profit growth in its first half.

Next have done it yet again. The retailer has delivered storming profit growth during the first half of the year as a result of their online ‘artistic endeavours’, which helped boost sales.

Full price sales rising 10.9% and total Group sales increasing 10.3% to £3,249m. Pre-tax profits jumped 13.8% to £515m, whilst earnings per share climbed 16.8% to 330.2p.

“Next breezed past its original sales guidance over the first half, driven by favourable weather, major disruption at M&S and impressive international growth,” explained Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“In the UK, both online and in-store full-price sales grew at mid-to-high single digits.”

Investors will be pleased to see the company maintained its full-year guidance, expecting total sales growth of 7.5% and pre-tax profits of £1,105m, representing a 9.3% increase on the previous year.

However, the company did caution that the UK economy could weigh on growth in the near term and investors took this as a signal to book profits after a strong run for the stock so far this year.

“While Next isn’t expecting it to drop off a cliff edge, it does expect anaemic growth at best. The fashion powerhouse is clearly unimpressed by the current government’s performance, which has brought about declining job opportunities, unfavourable regulation, unsustainable government spending, and rising taxes that make it harder for the economy to grow,” Chiekrie said.

“Despite these challenges, Next is in a strong position to continue dominating the UK market. Strong demand in its online channel remains a running theme, and it’s likely to remain the main growth driver.

“It already makes up more than half of group sales, and with international expansion still in its early days, growth abroad is powering ahead — up an impressive 33%. Around 90% of its overseas business comes from Europe and the Middle East, both of which can be serviced quickly and cheaply from the UK. Given the untapped size of these markets, there’s a big opportunity if Next can execute its expansion plans well, providing the potential for upside to current full-year guidance.”

Next shares were down 5% at the time of writing.