London open: Stocks nudge up in quiet trade
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 30 Dec 2025
(Sharecast News) - London stocks nudged up in early trade on Tuesday, with little in the way of news to move markets in either direction as we head towards the New Year break, although investors were eyeing the latest minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee.
At 0825 GMT, the FTSE 100 was 0.1% higher at 9,877.01.
There are no UK data points due, but in the US, S&P/Case Shiller house prices for October are due at 1400 GMT, while the Chicago PMI for December is at 1445 GMT. The FOMC minutes will be released at 1900 GMT.
TD Securities said: "The December FOMC minutes will likely shed more light on the division within the Committee while signalling a majority of participants believed it would be reasonable to slow down the pace of easing."
In equity markets, precious metals miner Fresnillo shot to the top of the FTSE 100, while heavily-weighted miners Anglo American, Glencore and Antofagasta followed close behind.
Grocery technology firm Ocado slumped as it said that mutual exclusivity has now ended with retailers in the majority of markets where its technology is currently live, including the USA with Kroger.
Ocado expects to roll off exclusivity arrangements by the end of the year in the majority of markets, enabling it to bring its "proven and much evolved technology offering" back to market in many of the largest grocery markets.
Lion Finance Group was in focus as it announced that Mikheil Gomarteli, deputy chief executive and head of payments at its Bank of Georgia subsidiary, was stepping down from executive roles on 1 January after 28 years with the business.
Gomarteli will remain in a non-executive role across the group's various subsidiaries. Former bank executive Levan Kobakhidze has rejoined as Bank of Georgia's new head of payments after two years at Wells Fargo in New York.
Elsewhere, the saga between Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust and Saba rolled on as EWIT hit back at the New York based investment firm's demands to replace the trust's entire board, calling for the major stakeholder to be open about its intentions.
Over the past year, Saba - which owns just under 30% of EWIT - has been campaigning to remove all of EWIT's independent board directors and replace them with its own three US-based directors.
On Tuesday, EWIT published an open letter, saying Saba must provide shareholders with "full transparency and clarity" about whether it intends to change the investment manager (currently Baillie Gifford) and the investment strategy.
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