Stock prices in London opened mixed on Tuesday, with the FTSE 100 up a notch despite Unilever shares falling as its Chief Executive Officer Hein Schumacher is set to leave the company.
Separately, US President Donald Trump’s claimed that tariffs of up to 25% on Canadian and Mexican imports are moving forward as planned, following last month’s last-minute pause which ends next Tuesday.
The announcement has reportedly sparked unease among investors, including in the UK, due to the potential impact of such levies on inflation and growth around the world.
The FTSE 100 index opened up 7.27 points, 0.1%, at 8,666.25. The FTSE 250 was down 2.97 points at 20,481.42, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.10 points at 710.98.
The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.1% at 867.09, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 17,835.46, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.4% at 15,869.84.
Unilever shed 1.9%.
Hein Schumacher will step down as CEO and as a board director of the consumer goods company on Saturday and leave Unilever on May 31.
Current Chief Financial Officer Fernando Fernandez will step up to the role of CEO from Saturday.
A thorough search to identify a permanent new CFO is underway, with current Deputy CFO Srinivas Phatak set as acting CFO from Saturday.
Smith & Nephew led the FTSE 100, up 8.4%.
The Watford, England-based medical technology company’s board has recommended a final dividend of 23.1 US cents for 2024, bringing the year’s total to 37.5 cents.
Also, revenue increased 4.7% to $5.81 billion in 2024 from $5.55 billion in 2023, while pretax profit surged to $498 million from $290 million, and earnings per share rose 56% to 47.2 cents from 30.2 cents.
Rio Tinto was the biggest loser, down 2.1%.
The mining titan faces criticism after activist investor Palliser Capital on Monday said it is ‘deeply disappointed’ by the company’s decision to reject a motion to review its dual listing.
In a letter to the board of the Anglo-Australian miner, Palliser said in light of the ‘irrefutable rationale’ for unification the resolution was ‘necessary’ to ensure a proper examination of the ‘anomalous and illogical decision to retain the status quo.’
Lion Finance led the FTSE 250, jumping 9.0%.
The Tbilisi, Georgia-based lender declared a ₾5.62 per share final dividend for 2024. The total payout was ₾9.00 per share, up 13% on-year. Pretax profit before items rose to ₾2.18 billion, around £620.3 million, in 2024 from ₾1.63 billion in 2023, and net interest income increased to ₾2.36 billion from ₾1.62 billion.
CMC Markets led the laggers, down 6.4%.
The London-based online trading platform announced that Chief Financial Officer Albert Soleiman has stepped down with immediate effect, although he ‘will remain with the firm for a period of time to support an orderly handover’.
On AIM, Staffline surged up 18%.
The Nottingham, England-based recruitment and training company has launched a £7.5 million buyback to return proceeds from its £12.0 million sale of PeoplePlus Group.
In other UK news, the energy bills of millions of households in England, Scotland and Wales are to rise by 6.4% from April 1 when Ofgem increases its price cap for a third consecutive quarter.
The regulator said the increase, which will raise the average bill for households on a standard variable tariff from the current £1,738 a year to £1,849, followed a recent spike in wholesale prices. The rise will equate to £111 for an average household per year, or around £9.25 a month.
This is 9.4% or £159 higher than this time last year but £531 or 22% lower than at the height of the energy crisis at the start of 2023.
In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 0.1%.
German gross domestic product fell by 0.2% quarterly on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, data published by the Federal Statistical Office showed. This followed growth of 0.1% in the third quarter from the second.
On-year and price-adjusted, the German economy declined by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, after 0.1% growth in the third quarter.
Meanwhile Swissquote’s Ipek Ozkardeskaya said: ‘The European stocks started the week near flat, while German companies gave back early gains, boosted by the idea – hope – that the new German government will relax spending rules and announce a special defence spending budget that could go up to €200 billion to take its own security in its own hands for the first time since the WWII.
‘The military spending in Europe is becoming a major investment theme – unfortunately – and should also be complemented with massive spending in technology and industry.’
The pound was quoted at $1.2620 early on Tuesday in London, lower compared to $1.2634 at the equities close on Monday. The euro stood lower at $1.0466, against $1.0471. Against the yen, the dollar was trading lower at JP¥149.59 compared to JP¥149.64.
In Asia on Tuesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was down 1.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.8%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 1.4%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.7%.
In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.1%, the S&P 500 down 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.2%.
Gold was quoted lower at $2,940.36 an ounce against $2,942.87 late Monday.
‘The worsening geopolitical and trade outlook boost appetite for safer pockets of the market, said Ozkardeskaya. ’The US 10-year yield pushed below the 4.40% mark, gold advanced to a fresh record high while the US dollar rebounded from the lowest levels since December...In the actual geopolitical setup, gold is certainly a better hedge than the US dollar and Treasuries.‘
Brent oil was quoted higher at $75.01 a barrel early in London on Tuesday from $74.85 late Monday.
Ozkardeskaya commented: ’Speaking of geopolitics, US crude extends rebound after approaching the critical $70pb support last Friday on news that Trump government imposed new sanctions on oil brokers and ships that were linked to illicit Iranian crude.
‘But the worsening global economic outlook on rising trade tensions will likely keep the upside limited.’
Still to come on Tuesday’s economic calendar, there are various US releases including consumer confidence, the Redbook index and money supply.
Also, Ireland’s average weekly earnings will be published at 1100 GMT.
Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
