By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 18 Nov 2025
(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was down 1.6% at 9,519.61 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.
Heavily-weighted miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore were all weaker.
Banks were also under the cosh as hopes of a US rate cut next month faded, with HSBC, Standard Chartered, Barclays and NatWest all lower.
Shares in WPP fell after Yannick Bollore, the chief executive of French advertising and PR firm Havas, poured cold water on speculation the company was in talks to buy its UK rival.
The UK advertising giant saw its shares surge on Monday after The Times suggested that Havas had held talks about a possible acquisition, while PE firms Apollo and KKR were understood to have run the rule over the company's assets.
However, according to Bloomberg, Bollore said in a memo to employees: "Given the recent press coverage... and the questions we've received from colleagues and clients, we want to clarify that we are not in discussions with WPP."
Convatec lost ground after Novo Holdings - which had been its largest shareholder - exited its position in the medical technology firm via a placing of 155m shares.
The shares, which represent a stake of about 7.8%, were sold to institutional investors at 227p each, raising gross proceeds of approximately £351m.
Going the other way, ICG surged to the top of the index after French asset manager Amundi agreed to take a near 10% in its British rival. The news came alongside the company's interim numbers, which showed a 6% uplift in fee-earning assets under management, to $84bn.
Imperial Brands rose as it posted an uplift in sales and earnings, supported by higher prices and growing demand for the tobacco group's range of next general products. British American Tobacco also gained.
FTSE 100 - Risers
ICG (ICG) 1,985.00p 5.08%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 3,220.00p 2.12%
Rightmove (RMV) 555.60p 0.94%
Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 2,588.00p 0.90%
Informa (INF) 914.20p 0.84%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 14,850.00p 0.81%
Centrica (CNA) 167.30p 0.63%
Tesco (TSCO) 439.70p 0.50%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,179.00p 0.48%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 319.40p 0.38%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Melrose Industries (MRO) 599.40p -4.31%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,675.00p -4.26%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 2,623.00p -4.20%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 1,048.80p -4.08%
WPP (WPP) 309.00p -3.47%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,543.50p -3.41%
Barclays (BARC) 396.90p -3.38%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 231.20p -3.34%
Glencore (GLEN) 352.05p -3.24%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,623.00p -2.98%
Email this article to a friend
or share it with one of these popular networks:
You are here: news