Pascal Soriot, CEO of pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca (AZN) has bought 20,000 shares at £102 for a total value of £2.04 million on 15 November. Soriot's purchase comes after the pharmaceutical giant delivered earnings ahead of consensus forecasts and raised its outlook on 14 November. Over the past two months the company's shares have fallen by around 16% after recording an all-time high at t...

Aerospace components maker Melrose Industries (MRO) defied the malaise in the sector caused by supply shortages after confirming full year- year profit expectations on increased demand for aftermarket parts and services. Investors welcomed the resilient performance by marking the shares up 7% to a new four month high of 521p, reducing the year-to-date loss to 7% against a 5% gain for the blue-c...

London-based scientific instrument specialist Judges (JDG:AIM) lowered its earnings guidance for a second time this year after what it called a 'disappointing trading performance' heading into the end of 2024. The shares initially fell as much as £19 or 18.5% to £83.52, making them the worst performers in the AIM 100 index, before recovering to trade £14.58 or 14% lower at £87.91 by mid-mor...

Stock prices in Europe were in the green on Monday morning including all UK stocks, as the energy price cap in Great Britain is now expected to rise in January, as opposed to fall. Meanwhile, Swissquote's Ipek Ozkardeskaya commented: 'US retail sales and the inflation data came in higher than expected last week, and the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the US economy is strong enou...

Stocks in London edged lower on Friday, while equities in New York dropped in early trade following some hawkish comments from the chair of the US Federal Reserve. The FTSE 100 index lost 7.58 points, 0.1%, at 8,063.61. The FTSE 250 declined 46.17 points, 0.2%, at 20,476.64, and the AIM All-Share gave back 2.24 points, 0.3%, at 727.14. For the week, the FTSE 100 slipped 0.1%, the FTSE 250 decli...

Shares in London posted modest gains around midday on Friday despite weaker-than-expected third quarter economic growth figures. In the third quarter, UK GDP edged up 0.1%, missing the 0.2% consensus, and slowing from 0.5% seen between April and June, according to the Office for National Statistics. Industrial production also missed forecasts and the trade deficit widened, although construction...

Shares in MP Evans (MPE:AIM) cultivated a 7.5% rise to £10 in early dealings, marking a new two year high, after the Indonesia-based sustainable palm oil producer upgraded year-to-December 2024 profit guidance off the back of surging palm oil prices, which have risen some 40% year-to-date. A more favourable pricing environment for CPO (crude palm oil), the company's main product, combined with...

US stock markets were a little quieter this week following the election excitement of the prior week with 'Trump trade' stocks and sectors giving back some of their gains. Cautious comments from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell (15 Nov) on the cadence of further interest rate cuts sent markets lower with the benchmark S&P 500 index off 0.7% and the small-cap Russell index losing 2%. One exce...

Stock prices in London, Paris and Frankfurt were mostly lower on Friday morning, as UK GDP growth came in slower than expected, ahead of US retail sales and industrial output data. UK gross domestic product is estimated to have increased in the latest quarter but edged down for September, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. The trade deficit widened on-month to £3.46 billion....

The FTSE 100 closed in the green on Thursday, following positive updates from some of London's large-cap constituents. The FTSE 100 index rose 40.86 points, 0.5%, at 8,071.19. The FTSE 250 closed up 163.80 points, 0.8%, at 20,522.81. The AIM All-Share advanced 0.09 of a point to 729.38. The Cboe UK 100 climbed 0.5% at 811.74, the Cboe UK 250 climbed 0.9% at 17,950.10 and the Cboe Small Compani...

Shares in B&M European Value (BME) gained over 3% to 392p in morning trading as the low-priced variety goods retailer said group revenue for the 26 weeks to 28 September increased by 3.7% to £2.64 billion. The increase was driven by UK sales growth, which improved across the first half of the year by 6% against 1.5% in the first quarter. The discount chain will also open a new UK import centre...

Stock prices in London were mostly in the green at Thursday midday, as US producer price inflation will soon be released amid weekly jobless figures, as investors await further updates on who will be part of Donald Trump's second administration. 'The FTSE 100 ticked higher in early trading on Thursday despite weakness in the US and Asia overnight as American inflation edged higher,' commented A...

Pubs and hotels group Young & Co (YNGA:AIM) delivered strong like-for-like revenue growth in the first half to 30 September and said recent trading has been strong with an acceleration in like-for-like growth. Investors gave the company the thumbs-up, marking the shares higher by 18.8p or 2% to 934.8p, though they remain around 17% lower year-to-date compared with a 4% drop in the FTSE AIM inde...