London midday: FTSE extends gains as AstraZeneca, Games Workshop rally

(Sharecast News) - London stocks had extended gains by midday on Tuesday, led higher by Games Workshop and AstraZeneca as investors waded through a deluge of corporate news and continued to mull the impact of the US-EU trade deal. The FTSE 100 was up 0.7% at 9,144.30.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "The FTSE 100 enjoyed another good start, lifted by positive market reaction to AstraZeneca's numbers and Games Workshop delivering yet another strong set of results.

"It's a busy week for corporate earnings in the UK and US, and investors have plenty of news to digest.

"Gains were recorded across all the major European indices, with investors sitting more comfortably after the US/EU trade agreement at the weekend."

On home shores, the latest Money and Credit report from the Bank of England showed that mortgage approvals rose in June.

Net mortgage approvals for house purchases ticked up to 64,200 from 63,300 in May. The figure for May was revised from 63,000. Economists were expecting it to remain broadly unchanged.

Net borrowing of mortgage debt increased by £3.1bn to £5.3bn in June, compared to a £2.8bn increase of net borrowing to £2.2bn in May.

The effective interest rate - the actual interest paid - on newly-drawn mortgages fell for the fourth month in a row, to 4.34% in June from 4.47% in May.

Approvals for remortgaging increased by 200 to 41,800 in June. This marked the highest number of approvals for remortgaging since October 2022, when it was 50,000.

The data also showed that net borrowing of consumer credit by individuals rose to £1.4bn in June from £0.9bn the month before. This was driven up by net borrowing through credit cards, which ticked up to £0.7bn from £0.2bn, while borrowing through other forms of consumer credit was broadly unchanged at £0.7bn.

Households' deposits with banks and building societies rose by £7.8bn on the month in June, following an increase of £4.3bn in May from April. This was mainly driven by households depositing an additional £3.6bn into ISAs and £1.2bn into interest bearing sight accounts

Earlier, industry data showed that the family shop got more expensive in July as food inflation accelerated for the sixth straight month, with staples under the most pressure as wholesale prices are driven up by global supply problems.

The British Retail Consortium's shop price monitor found that prices at UK tills were 0.7% higher than a year ago in July. That followed 0.4% annual growth in June, a 0.1% increase in May and a 0.1% fall in April.

In equity markets, Games Workshop shot to the top of the FTSE 100 as the Warhammer maker hailed a record full year, posting a 29.5% jump in group pre-tax profit to £262.8m, beating the guidance of not less than £255m given in May.

AstraZeneca rallied as the drug maker's second-quarter earnings topped expectations.

Entain jumped as full-year revenue guidance for BetMGM - its joint venture with MGM Resorts - was boosted following a stronger-than-expected second quarter.

Shaftesbury advanced as it reported interim growth in rents, earnings, dividends, valuation and EPRA NTA.

Construction and regeneration firm Morgan Sindall rose as it highlighted another record first-half performance and lifted the medium-term targets for both the Fit Out and Construction divisions.

Barclays Bank reversed earlier losses to trade up as it reported a 23% rise in half-year profit and said it would start a £1bn share buyback as market volatility cause by US President Donald Trump's tariffs war boosted income.

Pre-tax profit came in at £5.2bn, while group income rose 12% to £14bn as trading in its global markets division boomed.

On the downside, Croda International, Unite and Inchcape all slumped after results, while Paragon Banking and SSP fell after trading updates.

Greggs lost ground as it reported a 14% drop in first-half pre-tax profit, pinning the blame partly on the weather.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 9,144.30 0.69% FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,896.61 -0.25% techMARK (TASX) 5,278.15 0.72%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Games Workshop Group (GAW) 16,160.00p 5.90% AstraZeneca (AZN) 11,168.00p 3.50% Convatec Group (CTEC) 243.20p 1.84% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 999.00p 1.79% Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,358.00p 1.76% Entain (ENT) 1,010.50p 1.74% Barclays (BARC) 367.45p 1.73% 3i Group (III) 4,180.00p 1.65% Centrica (CNA) 163.30p 1.65% Informa (INF) 862.00p 1.60%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Croda International (CRDA) 2,697.00p -6.97% Unite Group (UTG) 769.50p -2.10% Glencore (GLEN) 310.20p -2.05% Rentokil Initial (RTO) 354.30p -1.86% BT Group (BT.A) 207.90p -1.66% LondonMetric Property (LMP) 190.80p -1.65% Vodafone Group (VOD) 82.66p -1.36% Anglo American (AAL) 2,239.00p -1.06% SEGRO (SGRO) 649.80p -0.98% United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,099.50p -0.95%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Shaftesbury Capital (SHC) 161.10p 3.40% Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 219.00p 3.11% Morgan Sindall Group (MGNS) 4,585.00p 2.80% Ithaca Energy (ITH) 177.00p 2.31% Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 1,160.00p 2.11% QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 494.80p 2.10% Harbour Energy (HBR) 206.40p 1.88% Avon Technologies (AVON) 2,075.00p 1.72% IP Group (IPO) 55.40p 1.65% Allianz Technology Trust (ATT) 461.00p 1.54%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Inchcape (INCH) 725.00p -9.38% Paragon Banking Group (PAG) 866.50p -8.98% SSP Group (SSPG) 168.40p -5.39% Greggs (GRG) 1,574.00p -4.32% Ocado Group (OCDO) 310.10p -3.31% IntegraFin Holding (IHP) 360.00p -2.70% Vietnam Enterprise Investments (DI) (VEIL) 680.00p -2.44% Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,842.00p -2.13% WH Smith (SMWH) 1,055.00p -2.04% Ocean Wilsons Holdings Ltd. (OCN) 1,230.00p -1.99%