Weekly review
By Josh White
Date: Friday 13 Mar 2026
(Sharecast News) - The FTSE 100 ended the week down 23.81 points, or 0.23%, closing at 10,261.15 on Friday.
Equity view
UK property developer Berkeley Group reaffirmed annual profit guidance but warned the war on Iran was "weighing heavily" on risk sentiment. In a trading update for the four months to February 28, the company said trading had remained constrained by the impact on consumer confidence of geo-political events and macro-economic uncertainty, although sales enquiries "remain good and the value of underlying reservations has been recovering towards the levels seen over the summer prior to the pre-Budget hiatus".
Property investor CLS Holdings said on Friday that full-year losses had significantly narrowed in 2025, but warned that it continued to face pressure from weaker valuations, higher vacancy and recent disposals. CLS posted a statutory post‑tax loss of £50.3m for the year to 31 December, a marked improvement on the £93.6m loss recorded in 2024 - largely driven by a reduced £79.2m net decline in investment property values, compared with £127.7m a year earlier.
AIM-listed low-carbon fertiliser developer Atome has agreed to a new $420m debt package for its $650m landmark fertiliser plant in Villeta, Paraguay, causing shares to rocket on Friday. The company said definitive debt financing documents have been signed for the loan, with the signing of definitive equity agreements projected to follow within 30 days.
Glencore is hopeful that a recent rally in coal prices and a shift in relative share performance could revive discussions with Rio Tinto over a potential mega-merger once regulatory restrictions expire later this year, it emerged on Friday. The two mining groups had previously held talks about combining their businesses into a company worth about $240bn that would unite Glencore's global commodities trading network and copper portfolio with Rio Tinto's large-scale mining operations.
Safety equipment and life-saving technology specialist Halma reiterated full-year guidance on Thursday, despite uncertain market conditions. Updating on trading, the blue chip acknowledged that its companies were facing "varied conditions" in their end markets, due to an "increasingly uncertain economic and geopolitical environment". However, despite that it had continued to make further strong progress during the second half, it said, leaving it on track to meet full-year targets.
Online rail ticket platform Trainline said it expected group adjusted core profit growth to fall within its previously-upgraded guidance range of 10% - 13%, driven by focused marketing spend and cost controls. In a trading update for the year to February 28, Trainline said group ticket sales grew 7% to £6.32bn while revenue rose 2% to £453m - the upper end of guidance of flat to 3% supported by the continued growth of ancillary revenues, including hotel and insurance sales, which was up 17%.
Helios Towers said on Thursday that its 2025 performance had exceeded market expectations as it delivered record tenancy additions. In the year to the end of December, operating profit rose 18% to $286m, while adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were 12% higher at $471.1m. Tenancies grew 9% to 31,944 at the telecom tower infrastructure company.
Computacenter reported a jump in full-year profit and revenue on Thursday as it hailed an "outstanding" year for the North American business. In the year to the end of December 2025, adjusted pre-tax profit rose 7.1% to £272m on revenue of £9.2bn, up 32% on the previous year. Gross invoiced income grew 31% to £13bn. Revenue in Technology Sourcing rose 41% to £7.5bn, while the services segment saw a 3.2% increase to £1.7bn.
South America focused miner Hochschild on Wednesday reported a jump in annual earnings as geopolitical turmoil boosted precious metals prices. Adjusted core earnings surged 39% to $583.7 million. The company said it was encouraged by an "exceptional" pricing environment as precious metal markets remain volatile.
Recruiter Robert Walters scrapped its dividend on Wednesday as it swung to a full-year loss and reported a decline in net fees in what it described as another challenging year. In the year to the end of December 2025, the company swung to an operating loss of £14.9 from a profit of £5.2m a year earlier - including £4.4m of redundancy costs - and a pre-tax loss of £19.6m from a profit of £0.5m.
Balfour Beatty posted a jump in full-year profits and revenues on Wednesday, driven by strong performances in UK construction and support services. Revenues rose 8% at the infrastructure specialist in the year to December end, to £10.8bn, while underlying profits from operations (PFO) in its earnings-based businesses increased 16% to £293m. Underlying profits in UK construction came in at £110m, up from £81m a year previously, while support services rose to £122m from £93m.
Harbour Energy tanked in early trade on Wednesday after its third-largest shareholder, EIG Management, sold 60m shares in a placing to institutional investors, raising about £153m. The shares, which represent a stake of around 3.8%, were placed at 255p each. Following settlement of the placing, EIG will retain a 3.5% interest in Harbour Energy. Barclays Bank acted as sole global co-ordinator and sole bookrunner on the placing.
Construction industry supplier Grafton Group said it had bought Irish timber frame maker Cygnum Holdings for an undisclosed sum as it moves into the modular building market. Founded in 1997 and based in County Cork, Cygnum delivers made-to-order offsite timber frames to developers and contractors in the Irish market. Its unaudited 2025 revenue and adjusted operating profit were €45.6m and €7.9m respectively, Grafton said on Monday.
Water utility firm Pennon said on Tuesday that underlying earnings had grown 55% year‑on‑year in the six months ended 9 March, despite ongoing weather‑related cost pressures and higher early‑cycle regulatory costs. As a result, Pennon said underlying profitability was now expected to be within the range of market expectations, albeit at the lower end of forecasts.
Domino's Pizza Group posted a slump in annual profits on Tuesday as a "challenging" consumer backdrop weighed heavily on sales, but said 2026 had got off to a promising start. The UK fast food chain saw a 1.5% uplift in system sales in the year to 28 December 2025, to £1.6bn, with revenues up 3.1% at £685.4m. On a like-for-like basis, however, system sales - which include all sales made by both franchised and corporate stores, excluding VAT - rose by just 0.2%, while like-for-like orders fell 2.3%.
Genuit Group reported higher revenue and profit for 2025 on Tuesday, as the UK building products supplier continued to grow despite subdued construction markets, supported by acquisitions, market share gains and demand for sustainability-focused solutions. The FTSE 250 maker of water and climate management products said revenue rose 7.3% to £602.1m in the year ended 31 December, from £561.3m in 2024.
Pan African Resources on Monday said it was buying Australia's Emmerson Resources in a deal worth AUD $311m (£163m). Emmerson shareholders will receive 0.1493 Pan African Resources shares in the form of Australian-listed CHESS Depositary Interests for each Emmerson share. The deal is being struck at a 36.4% premium to Emmerson's last closing price of AUD $0.330.
Drugmaker GSK has signed a licensing deal with Italy's Alfasigma that will hand over worldwide exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise linerixibat, an investigational IBAT inhibitor. Under the agreement, GSK will receive an upfront payment of $300m, followed by a further $100m on US Food And Drug Administration approval, which was expected to be received before the transaction closes.
Shipping services firm Clarksons posted a drop in full-year profit on Monday amid "extraordinary geopolitical and economic complexity", but lifted its dividend and struck an upbeat note on the outlook. In the 12 months to the end of December, underlying pre-tax profit fell to £90.6m from £115.3m, while underlying basic earnings per share declined to 225.8p from 286.9p. Revenue dipped to £631.4m from £661.4m.
Ferrexpo said it has restarted limited iron ore pellet production in Ukraine after a temporary suspension earlier this year as electricity availability improved, while also warning that the liquidation of one of its banking partners in Switzerland could constrain its ability to make payments outside the country. The London-listed company said production had resumed at its Ferrexpo Poltava Mining (FPM) operation following the suspension announced on 20 January, after improvements in the availability and cost of both domestic and imported electricity supplies.
Economic news
The UK economy stalled in January, official data showed on Friday, just weeks before war in the Middle East sent global energy prices soaring. According to the Office for National Statistics, GDP was 0.0% in January, down on December's 0.1% uptick and below expectations for growth of 0.2%. While construction improved by 0.2%, the dominant services sector showed zero growth and production fell 0.1%.
Tesla secured regulatory approval to supply electricity to households and businesses across Great Britain on Thursday, opening the door for the electric-vehicle maker to expand its energy business into the UK retail power market. Britain's energy regulator Ofgem granted an electricity supply licence to Tesla Energy Ventures, a subsidiary of Tesla, allowing the company to sell electricity to homes and businesses in England, Scotland and Wales.
The UK communications services regulator Ofcom has called on social media and video-sharing platforms to improve their age check to keep young children protected from adult content. In an open letter published on Thursday, Ofcom said platforms that set minimum age thresholds - such as 13 - must no longer solely rely on self-declaration methods to enforce the rules, and must instead use tech solutions to keep those under age off their sites.
The UK housing market faltered in February, a closely-watched industry survey showed on Thursday, as heightened geopolitical tensions weighed heavily on consumer confidence. According to the latest residential market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, new buyer enquiries were down sharply last month, while house prices nudged lower.
The Competition and Markets Authority launched a review into the UK heating oil market on Wednesday, after receiving reports of cancelled orders and sharp price increases for households as global oil prices rise amid conflict in the Middle East. The regulator said the ongoing regional conflict had driven up wholesale oil costs, which is feeding through to consumer fuel prices.
UK retail sales growth slowed significantly in February, according to the British Retail Consortium on Tuesday, as an increase in food sales eased and non-food sales turned lower as a result of one of the wettest months on record. Total retail sales rose by just 1.1% year-on-year in February, following the 2.7% jump seen in January, the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor showed. That was below the 12-month average growth rate of 2.3%.
International events
US inflation eased slightly at the beginning of 2025, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, with headline PCE growth slowing to 2.8% year-on-year in January, down from 2.9% in December. January's reading came in just below expectations, while the monthly increase of 0.3% was in line with forecasts.
A swathe of countries including the UK could be hit with fresh tariffs after the White House launched an investigation into practices around forced labour. In a statement released late on Thursday, US trade representative Jamieson Greer confirmed that 60 trading partners would be probed under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act.
US economic growth for the fourth quarter of 2025 was revised sharply lower on Friday, as consumer spending and fixed investment growth both slowed, and steep declines were seen in exports and government spending. The second estimate of fourth-quarter real gross domestic product showed an annualised increase of just 0.7% for the final three months of last year, well below the 1.4% flash estimate released three weeks ago - which at the time was also significantly under consensus forecasts.
Indian oil products tanker Jag Prakash has reportedly started moving away from the Gulf of Oman in the east of Strait of Hormuz. According to Bloomberg, Rajesh Sinha, special secretary in the shipping industry, told reporters on Friday that the ship is an Indian-flagged tanker carrying gasoline and is headed to Africa.
Energy prices remained under pressure on Friday, despite the US temporarily lifting sanctions on the purchase of Russian oil supplies stranded at sea. Global energy prices have soared since the US attacked Iran. As hostilities mount across the region, the Strait of Hormuz - a vital passage in the global supply of oil - has become too dangerous to pass. Around a fifth of the world's supply is normally transported through the narrow waterway between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The spike in oil prices will hit Germany's economic recovery, but only slightly if the war on Iran is not prolonged, three economic organisations said on Thursday. Europe's biggest economy should grow 0.8% this year, the Ifo said, in line with its forecast in December, although it pointed out that this would have been lifted to 1% except for the conflict. It also expects 2027 growth of 1.2%.
Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz should stay closed as a way to keep up pressure on the West. In the first public statement since his appointment, he also said that all US bases in the Middle East should be closed and would be attacked.
US construction data was mixed in January, with building permits falling even as housing starts picked up. According to the Census Bureau, building permits dropped 5.4% month-on-month to 1.37m, the lowest level seen since August 2025 and below expectations of 1.41m.
Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at a decelerated clip in the week ended 7 March, according to the Labor Department, contrasting with weak signals in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest jobs report. Initial unemployment claims came in at 213,000, a decrease of 1,000 against the previous week's upwardly revised reading, while the four week moving average, which aims to strip out week-to-week volatility, decreased by 4,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised reading to 212,000.
The US Navy is "not ready" to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, America's energy secretary confirmed on Thursday. Last week US president Donald Trump said the country's navy would help protect ships in the Middle East "if necessary", helping to temporarily calm volatile energy markets.
Oil prices spiked once again on Thursday, despite countries around the world pledging to release crude reserves, as hostilities intensified in the Middle East. The International Energy Agency said on Wednesday that its 32 members had agreed to release an unprecedented 400m barrels of oil, to help curb the economic fallout from the war.
The International Energy Agency on Wednesday ordered the release of 400 million barrels of oil reserves - the largest in its history - to help ease the supply and price spike crisis caused by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. Oil prices had fallen overnight as reports emerged the energy watchdog's 32 members were set to approve the release of a third of the group's total government stockpiles.
US consumer prices rose 0.3% in February after a 0.2% gain in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in line with expectations. The shelter index increased 0.2% and remained the biggest contributor to the monthly rise, while food prices were up 0.4%, with both food at home and food away from home advancing, and energy costs climbed 0.6%.
German inflation dipped marginally in February, official data showed on Wednesday, in line with expectations. According to Destatis, the Federal Statistics Office, the consumer price index was up 1.9% year-on-year, confirming the provisional estimate and consensus. The print compares to January's 2.1% rate and the 1.8% seen in December. Month-on-month CPI rose 0.2%.
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