Weekly review
By Josh White
Date: Friday 24 Apr 2026
(Sharecast News) - The FTSE 100 ended the week down 289.36 points, or 2.71%, closing at 10,379.08 on Friday.
Equity view
Technology and services provider Computacenter said on Friday that full-year results would be "comfortably ahead" of market expectations as it had reported a first‑quarter performance that came in "significantly ahead" of the prior year and "well above" internal expectations, driven by robust growth in technology sourcing unit and continued progress in services. Computacenter said group technology sourcing revenues rose "particularly strongly", supported by significant demand from hyperscale customers in North America and the UK, while services revenue also improved year‑on‑year, with strong organic growth in professional services - again led by North America - offsetting a decline in managed services.
Paper and packaging firm Mondi on Friday said it was raising prices and cutting jobs in response to increased volatility caused by the US-Israel war on Iran and Lebanon, sending shares in the firm sharply lower. The company said it expected the impact of the increases to take full effect in the third quarter of this year.
Andy Higginson reportedly quit as chair of JD Sports this week after pushing for chief executive Régis Schultz to be ousted and failing to win unanimous backing for the move from the retailer's board. Higginson argued that Schultz should be replaced after a three-and-a-half-year tenure in which the sportswear business has reported slowing sales and struggled in its key North American market, the Financial Times reported citing four unnamed people familiar with the matter.
Celsius Resources said trading in its ordinary shares on the Australian Securities Exchange would resume on Friday, following a temporary suspension, while its shares on AIM remained unaffected. The copper-gold developer said an initial alternative conflict resolution process relating to Makilala Mining Company had concluded in its favour on 21 April, with interim orders sought by Sodor and PMR Holding denied.
Investment platform AJ Bell reported record second-quarter net inflows on Thursday amid record growth in customer numbers. In the platform business, gross inflows were up 40% on the previous year at £5.6bn, with net inflows 42% higher at £2.7bn. AJ Bell hailed record growth in customer numbers, which rose by 50,000 in the quarter to 723,000, up 22% in the last year and 7% in the quarter.
Property investment and development firm Segro said on Thursday that it had delivered a "strong operational performance" during the first quarter, with £23m of new headline rent contracted, including £12m of development lettings. Segro said momentum had continued across its business, despite the "uncertain geopolitical environment", as the group reported a 38% uplift on rent reviews, renewals and regears in the UK, while customer retention remained strong at 83% and occupancy was stable at 94.8% as the group reduced vacancy in its London portfolio and completed speculatively developed urban space in Germany.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals reiterated full-year guidance on Thursday, despite a rise in costs following the outbreak of war in the Middle East. Updating on first-quarter trading, the blue chip said all three of its business divisions - injectables, branded and Hikma Rx - were "performing well", with good demand across markets and portfolios.
Relx said in an update on Thursday that it has started the year well across all four of its business areas, reporting strong underlying revenue and profit growth alongside robust new sales, as it reaffirmed its full-year outlook ahead of its annual general meeting. The FTSE 100 group said its improving long-term growth trajectory was still being driven by a shift in business mix towards higher-growth analytics and decision tools, supported by the integration of advanced artificial intelligence technologies with its proprietary content and data sets.
Logistics specialist Bunzl reiterated full year guidance despite an uncertain geopolitical and macroeconomic environment after a rise in first quarter revenues. The company said it continued to expect operating margins to be slightly lower year on year with "some underlying revenue growth and a small benefit from acquisitions" after group revenue in the first quarter grew by 1.5% at constant exchange rates supported by volume growth and tariff-related price increases.
Green energy investor TRIG on Wednesday said it did not expect a hit to net asset value or dividend cover from the UK government's decision to increase windfall tax rates on electricity generators that did not sign up to fixed price contracts. The government on Tuesday said it was hiking the Electricity Generator Levy (EGL) to 55% from 45% in an attempt in an effort to speed up the delinking of gas and electricity prices to stabilise costs for consumers in the event of an energy shock such as the war on Iran.
High technology components manufacturer Senior said on Wednesday that it had delivered a "good start to 2026", with the firm's full year performance now anticipated to be above previous expectations. Senior said constant currency group revenues increased 2.5% year-on-year in the first quarter, with aerospace revenue up 9.7%, driven by good growth across civil aerospace, while flexonics revenues decreased a better-than-expected 6.2%, as lower petrochemical sales were partially offset by higher than anticipated demand for land vehicle products.
Precious metals miner Fresnillo reported lower silver output in the first quarter, a broadly steady performance in gold, and mixed movements across by‑products, reflecting grade variability and changes in ore throughput across several of its mines. Fresnillo said on Wednesday that attributable silver production fell 8.5% quarter‑on‑quarter to 11.1m ounces, mainly due to lower grades and reduced volumes processed at Saucito, Fresnillo and Juanicipio, partly offset by higher throughput and grades at Ciénega. Silver output was down 6.5% year‑on‑year.
Brickmaker Ibstock said it had appointed Will Wilkins as chief financial officer. Wilkins is currently CFO at AIM-listed packaging and automation group Mpac, a role he has held since 2018 having worked in several finance roles at the company, Ibstock said, adding that he was expected to join on August 1. Simon Bedford will continue as interim CFO until Wilkins joins the group.
Data and technology firm Experian said on Tuesday that Adam Crozier would join the board as non-executive director and chair designate on 12 May. Crozier, who currently serves as chair of BT and Kantar, will succeed Mike Rogers as chairman following the conclusion of Experian's annual general meeting on 22 July.
Drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Tuesday that high‑level results from an interim analysis of its Phase III I CAN trial showed Ultomiris had met its primary endpoint, delivering a statistically significant and meaningful reduction in proteinuria in adults with IgA nephropathy at risk of disease progression. AstraZeneca said the main efficacy measure - changes in estimated glomerular filtration rates - would be assessed at week 106.
Mining giant Rio Tinto posted a spike in copper and iron ore production on Tuesday, but left its full-year guidance unchanged amid increased geopolitical turmoil. The Anglo-Australian miner saw a 9% increase in copper equivalent production in the first quarter, to 229,000 tonnes, boosted by the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia continuing to ramp up as planned.
Fintech group Plus500 lifted its full-year profit outlook on Monday following a "strong" first-quarter performance. The company now expects FY 2026 revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be ahead of current market expectations of $779.3m and $360.4m respectively.
Drugmaker GSK said on Monday that its relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma treatment Blenrep had received approval from China's National Medical Products Administration, making it the only anti-BCMA cleared for use in the country. GSK said Blenrep's Chinese approval followed a priority review of its application and Breakthrough Therapy Designation for its combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone based on the potential to provide "substantial improvement" over available therapies.
Drugmaker AstraZeneca reported positive top-line data from its pivotal Phase III MIRANDA trial on Monday, with first‑in‑class candidate tozorakimab delivering a "statistically significant and clinically meaningful reduction" in the annualised rate of moderate‑to‑severe COPD exacerbations. AstraZeneca said the benefit was seen in the primary population of former smokers, as well as the overall cohort, which included both former and current smokers across all blood eosinophil counts and all levels of lung‑function impairment.
IT provider Kainos said on Monday that full-year revenue was set to be ahead of consensus expectations following a continued strong performance in the second half of the year. In an update for the year to the end of March, the company said full-year adjusted pre-tax profit would be in line with a forecast of £66.4m. Analysts are expecting FY revenue of £406.5m.
Economic news
The deputy governor of the Bank of England has said that equity market valuations are too high given the macroeconomic risks facing the global economy. In an interview with the BBC on Friday, Sarah Breeden warned of a potential stock market downturn with key equity benchmarks already trading at or close to record highs despite the current heightened economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
Donald Trump threatened to impose "a big tariff" on the UK overnight on Friday, unless it dropped its digital services tax on large American technology companies, escalating tensions between Washington and London over trade, taxation and foreign policy. The US president said the UK was targeting major American companies through the levy, which charges 2% on revenues generated from UK users by large digital businesses, including social media platforms, search engines and online marketplaces.
UK retail sales unexpectedly rose in March as consumers rushed to get fuel after the outbreak of war in the Middle East, according to figures released on Friday by the Office for National Statistics. Retail sales volumes increased by 0.7% in March following a 0.6% decline in February, and versus analysts' expectations for sales to be flat. Fuel sales shot up 6.1% for the month, the highest level since April 2021.
The medical data of 500,000 British citizens was put up for sale on Chinese website Alibaba, the UK government confirmed on Thursday. The UK Biobank is a non-profit charity, independent of government, which brings together data donated by its volunteer participants. This data is then shared with researchers globally "to make significant scientific discoveries that improve patient health".
Consumer confidence fell for the third month in a row in April, a long-running survey showed on Thursday, hitting a near three-year low. According to the latest consumer confidence barometer from GfK, part of retail consultancy NIQ, the overall score fell four points to -25, the lowest since October 2023.
UK manufacturing output and orders fell in the three months to April, with sentiment deteriorating sharply, according to the latest Industrial Trends survey from the Confederation of British Industry. Output volumes fell at a faster pace than in March, with a net balance of -27% in April versus -23% the month before. A balance is the weighted percentage of firms reporting an increase and those reporting a decrease.
Public borrowing fell in the year to March, official figures showed on Thursday, broadly in line with the fiscal watchdog's forecast. According to early estimates from the Office for National Statistics, borrowing was £12.6bn last month, £1.4bn less than in March 2025 and the lowest March borrowing since 2022. It was, however, notably more than the £10.3bn expected by economists.
Activity in the UK private sector picked up in April, while cost inflation saw its biggest month-on-month jump in 30 years as customers brought orders forward amid expectations of price hikes, according to a survey released on Thursday. The S&P Global flash PMI composite output index rose to 52.0 this month from 50.3 in March. A reading above 50.0 indicates expansion, while a reading below signals contraction.
The annual rate of house price growth across the UK picked up slightly in February, according to data from the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday, while the latest rent inflation figures showed a slowdown. House prices across England, Wales and Scotland averaged £268,000 over the 12 months to February, a 1.2% increase over last year, the ONS said.
Inflation rose in March, official data showed on Wednesday, as the war in Iran caused global energy prices to soar. According to the Office for National Statistics, the consumer price index was 3.3% in the 12 months to March, up from 3% in February and in line with consensus.
International events
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is reportedly expected to arrive in Islamabad on Friday night for a possible second round of peace talks with the US. According to Bloomberg, citing officials in Pakistan familiar with the matter, a US logistics and security team is already there to prepare for the talks.
German business sentiment deteriorated in April to its worst level since May 2020 as the war in Iran took its toll, according to a survey released on Friday by the Ifo Institute. The business climate index fell to 84.4 from 86.3 in March, while expectations index declined to 83.3 from 85.9.
The ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel will be extended by three weeks, according to US President Donald Trump, following talks between the two sides at the White House. Trump said on Truth Social that a meeting between vice president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and the ambassadors to Israel and Lebanon had gone "very well".
Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at an accelerated pace in the week ended 18 April, according to the Labor Department. Initial unemployment claims rose by 6,000 to 214,000, up from the previous week's upwardly revised 208,000 print and ahead of expectations for a reading of 212,000.
Private-sector output across the eurozone contracted at its sharpest rate in almost a year and a half in April, as resilience among manufacturers was outweighed by a renewed downturn within the services sector. The flash estimate of S&P Global's eurozone composite purchasing managers' index, which tracks developments across the services and manufacturing sectors combined, dropped to 48.6 this month from 50.7 in March.
Consumer confidence levels across the eurozone plummeted to their lowest in three and a half years in April, as growing geopolitical uncertainty and soaring energy prices hammered sentiment. The European Commission's consumer confidence indicator for the single-currency region dropped 4.2 percentage points to hit -20.6% as sentiment "continued its free fall since the start of the Iran war", the report said.
Three vessels have been hit by gunfire in the Strait of Hormuz, maritime sources confirmed on Wednesday. According to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a Liberia-flagged container ship sustained damage to its bridge after being approached by an Iranian Revolutionary Guard north east of Oman. A Panama-flagged vessel was also fired on about eight nautical miles west of Iran, but was not damaged. Reuters, citing maritime security sources, reported that a third container ship was also fired on but again, was not damaged.
US mortgage applications rallied 7.8% week-on-week in the seven days ended 17 April, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, extending the prior week's 1.8% increase. Last week's increase came alongside a serve basis point reduction in benchmark mortgage rates, which tracked the pullback in long‑term Treasury yields as markets weighed the inflation outlook against rising energy prices.
US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US will extend the ceasefire with Iran while continuing the blockade of Iranian ports. The two-week ceasefire is due to expire on Wednesday. However, in a post on Truth Social, Trump said: "Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal.
Contracts to purchase previously owned US homes rose at a faster-than-expected clip in March, according to the National Association of Realtors, but higher mortgage rates and constrained supply continued to weigh on the housing market. The NAR's pending home sales index rose 1.5% to 73.7 in March, easily surpassing consensus estimates for a 0.5% increase. On an annualised basis, pending home sales dropped 1.1%.
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