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U.K. stocks are turning in a mixed performance on Wednesday with investors digesting corporate earnings announcements, and continuing to assess the economic impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs that are set to become effective this week.<\/p>\n
Investors are also awaiting the Bank of England’s monetary policy announcement due on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The benchmark FTSE 100 is up 22.62 points or 0.25% at 9,165.35 a little before noon.<\/p>\n
Hiscox is rising nearly 9% after announcing an increase to its share buyback programme. The company has increased its maximum aggregate consideration from $175 million to $275 million to return additional capital to shareholders.<\/p>\n
Fresnillo is gaining 4.7% and Diageo is up nearly 3%. Beazley is advancing 2.75%.<\/p>\n
Anglo American Plc, BP, Ashtead Group, Shell, Centrica, Kingfisher, Mondi, ICG, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Whitbread, IMI, Rentokil Initial, Airtel Africa, Antofagasta, Barclays and HSBC Holdings are up 1 to 2.5%.<\/p>\n
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners is plunging more than 11% after the company trimmed its fiscal 2025 revenue forecast, despite reporting higher first-half results. The outlook revision mainly reflects a weaker consumer backdrop in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
For fiscal 2025, the company now expects revenues to grow around 3% to 4% on an adjusted comparable & FX-neutral basis, while previous outlook was a growth of around 4%. The company continues to expect annual operating profit growth of around 7%.<\/p>\n
In the first half, profit before taxes grew to 1.26 billion euros from last year’s 1.05 billion euros. Earnings per share were 1.99 euros, higher than last year’s 1.73 euros.<\/p>\n
Coca-Cola HBC is declining 8.4%, despite higher earnings, and reiterating full-year guidance.<\/p>\n
Glencore is down 4.1%, weighed down by a 14% drop in first half adjusted core profit and scrapping plans to move its primary listing away from London.<\/p>\n
Legal & General Group shares are down 2.7% despite the company reporting stronger-than-expected first-half results.<\/p>\n
Relx, Marks & Spence, IAG, Next and Sainsbury (J) are down 1 to 2%.<\/p>\n
In economic news, the UK construction sector downturn deepened in July as volumes of work carried out across all sectors decreased markedly, survey results from S&P Global showed.<\/p>\n
The headline construction Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 44.3 in July from 48.8 in June. The score signaled the sharpest contraction since May 2020.<\/p>\n
The survey revealed marked decreases in activity across monitored sub-sectors, but a considerable drag came from a fresh drop in residential building. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n