* FTSE 100 climbs 43 points to 10,192
* HSBC becomes largest company in index
* Dr Martens sales slowdown disappoints
* William Hill owner Evoke reports strongest quarter
12.10pm: Gold to $6K?
Gold rising to $6,000 an ounce is “achieveble” says Deutsche Bank.
Commodities analyst Michael Hseuh says he and his colleagues “recognise the likelihood of structurally higher geopolitical volatility, and we propose important commodity market implications from the fragmented global operating environment”.
As nations look to build independent supply chains, this “implicitly requires higher-cost supply”, especially with price floor agreements, he says.
Stockpiling of resources, as has been seen in the last year or so, “significantly impacts” gold, crude oil and critical minerals, he adds.
Gold is also supported by higher military requires more government debt.
“Gold’s continued rise reflects investment motives which may be persistent: higher reserve allocations, and investors raising allocations to non-dollar and real assets.
“We think USD 6,000/oz is achievable with a weaker dollar this year,” he says.
11.19am: Analyst allays worries about HSBC
Also helping HSBC, it is Citi’s top pick among the UK banks.
Analyst Andrew Coombs sent a note to clients where he addressed fears on the health of UK and Hong Kong economies, finding himself “constructive on UK banks for 2026”.
He sees strong UK loan and deposit growth continuing and adds that Hong Kong commercial real estate concerns “should ease”.
Natwest is his top preference, followed by HSBC and then StanChart.
10.57am: China boost sends HSBC to top of FTSE
With a 2.8% surge this morning, it seems HSBC Holdings PLC (LSE:HSBA) has taken the crown as the largest company on the FTSE 100 from AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN, NASDAQ:AZN).
HSBC and Prudential, both strongly China focused finance groups, are currently one and two on this morning’s leaderboard too.
The relevant news is likely to be China’s industrial profits turning positive in 2025 for the first time in four years.
Data overnight showed the year-to-date growth in Chinese industrial profits rose to 0.6% year-on-year in December, after slowing for two consecutive months into November.
For the single month of December, the year-on-year rate turned positive, rising 5.1% in December, rebounding from a fall of -13.4% a month earlier. Improvements were seen across all three major sector components, but were most pronounced in manufacturing, where profits grew 5.0% y/y.
“Overall, 2025 marked a turning point for industrial profits, with growth turning positive for the first time in four years,” says economist Kelvin Lam at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
“While the recovery in industrial profits is likely to continue into 2026, it will be a slow, rough and volatile journey.
“The economy will remain beset by widespread excessive competition, or involution, after years of duplicated overinvestment in certain industries.
“The impact of government policies aimed at tackling involution will take time to emerge. As a result, we expect the deflationary environment on the production side to linger for a while longer.
“The recovery in domestic demand, particularly consumption, will also be slow given feeble income growth and job creation.
“On the external front, China executed its export strategy well in 2025, but is expected to face greater challenges in 2026 as protectionist measures ramp up in non-US destinations, which will potentially dampen the profit recovery.
“The silver lining, however, is recent government efforts to deploy quasi-fiscal financing tools via policy bank lending to local-level projects.
“The impact of this on production and FAI is expected to come through sometime in H1 this year, and should be a relatively forceful driver of profit growth in 2026, especially in construction materials related industries.
“As in 2025, high-tech industries and equipment manufacturing, where China is throwing the country’s resources into building, will continue to be key upward drivers of profit growth in 2026.”
10.42am: Burberry upgraded
Burberry Group PLC (LSE:BRBY) shares are up 1.5% after Barclays doled out an upgrade, saying the recent update was reassuring and has “proven that its turnaround story is working”.
Analyst Carole Madjo, who lifted her rating to ‘overweight’, says she views the brand as “an attractive self-help play for 2026”, while recent de-rating “offers a good entry point”.
She says she has “fewer reasons to be cautious on the turnaround”, with the fashion house able to report a second consecutive quarter of positive retail comps despite a particularly tough comparative from the year before, which is viewed as “a clear sign” that the Burberry Forward strategy is working.
10.24am: Gold ETFs flows
Gold’s ascent has been helped by European gold ETFs attracting more than €2 billion in net inflows since the beginning of the year, says Morningstar research guru Kenneth Lamont.
“While strong price momentum is clearly drawing in short-term speculators, the rally also reflects a deeper sense of investor unease,” he says, with rising geopolitical tensions and escalating trade frictions reinforcing gold’s role as “an ‘armageddon’ asset”.
The US intervention in Venezuela and uncertainty around Iran and Greenland, have “encouraged investors to reassess the concentration of risk within the global security and financial systems”, Lamont says.
“This reassessment has prompted central banks – particularly in emerging markets – to diversify away from US dollar-denominated reserves, a process that has increasingly involved the accumulation of gold.”
9.52am: European markets mixed, gold and silver rebounding
The FTSE 100 is standing firm, while some continental peers have dropped into the red, with Germany’s DAX down 0.17% and France’s CAC 40 dipping below the water line. Spain’s and Italy’s benchmarks are still in green though.
Today is a fairly light one in terms of economic data points and earnings reports, says market analyst Derren Nathan at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“Less than one month into the year, London’s flagship index is up around 2% in 2025. That’s been led by some big gains in the mining sector, which has been boosted by soaring metal prices and consolidation activity.
“But with some 64 of the 100 largest companies listed in London is positive territory, the rally also has some breadth.”
While tech isn’t a huge feature of the London markets, the Footsie’s only software pureplay, Sage, is top of the leaderboard.
Gold, after a drop late yesterday, is back up at $5,094, closing in on $5,100, while silver is up 8.3% at $112.6.
“The International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva has stoked fears of further dollar weakness and the inflow into metals is likely to include a slice of speculative monies ahead of tomorrow’s interest rate decision by the Fed,” says Nathan.
“Markets aren’t expecting any changes to lending rates, but markets will be watching keenly to see if Chair Powell, who’s kept a tight grip on monetary policy, is to be replaced by a Trump dove before the end of his term on May 15.”
9.21am: Pubs support to be announced today
Rachel Reeves is set to announce a £100 million-a-year support package for pubs, according to the FT, following backlash over the business rates changes she unveiled in the Budget.
According to the Guardian, Treasury officials admitted they underestimated the full financial impact of the rates revaluation in England and Wales, which led to pub operators warning of widespread closures and job losses (and Reeves being barred from her local pub in her Leeds constituency).
The relief package, still being finalised as of last night, will apply only to the pub sector, with hospitality businesses such as cafes, restaurants and hotels not included.
No changes are expected to VAT rates for alcohol, though the government has separately moved to ease licensing rules and extend trading hours.
8.56am: Bookies on the move
Top of the FTSE 350 risers is Playtech PLC (LSE:PTEC), up 5.3% on what is likely to be read-across from the trading update from William Hill owner Evoke.
Evoke, which put itself up for sale last month after a rise in gambling taxes in the Budget, reported its strongest quarter of the year, with revenues up 7% compared with the previous quarter but down 3% year-on-year.
The strategic review remains ongoing, with Evoke saying it may include the sale of the group or some of its business units. No forward-looking guidance will be provided while the review is in progress.
Elsewhere in the gambling sector, Grosvenor casinos owner Rank is up 0.6%, Ladbrokes parent Entain is down 1.85% to a nine-month low and Paddy Power owner Flutter is flat (at a two year low) after spiking in early trading.
8.32am: Docs stomped
Dr Marten’s shares are bottom of the FTSE 350 movers, down 6.9%.
At a headline level, a revenue decline of 3.1% total “fell short of expectations”, says Peel Hunt analyst John Stevenson, leaving YTD revenues down 0.7% at £580m.
“However, underlying PBT guidance remains unchanged,” he notes, though adding that previous guidance of a £2 million positive forex impact has been reduced to flat, implying around a £2 million downgrade to consensus expectations today.
He says the US “remains encouraging”, but EMEA sales remaining challenging.
“Heavy seasonal board-wide discounting from wholesale partners (across all brands/products) sucked activity away from DTC after Black Friday”.
8.15am: Sage leads Footsie higher, but miners a drag
The FTSE 100 has opened higher, as expected, with a gain of 27 points to 10,176.
Top of the early risers is Sage Group PLC (LSE:SGE), up 2.4% as the financial software group reported organic revenue growth of 10% for the first quarter of its financial year.
Next in line are Spirax Group, HSBC, NatWest and Halma.
Spirax and Halma are companies that often move on days when tariffs winds are changing.
Leading the fallers is precious metals miner Fresnillo PLC (LSE:FRES), followed by the rest of the index’s miners, Antofagasta, Anglo American, Glencore, Endeavour Mining and Rio Tinto.
7.58am: Cranswick expects meatier profits
Pig and chicken farmer Cranswick PLC (LSE:CWK) said it expects fatter full-year profits after the past quarter saw strong sales growth across all of its product categories, including a record Christmas trading period.
In a trading update covering the 13 weeks to 27 December, the meat producer said December sales even exceeded a strong prior year, driven by performance in fresh pork, convenience foods and premium festive ranges.
The update did not contain many numbers, but the FTSE 250-listed group said it now expects full-year adjusted profit before tax to be “towards the upper end of current market expectations”, with City analyst forecasts in a range of £211.3-216 million.
7.41am: Dr Martens sales soften
Dr Martens PLC (LSE:DOCS) has reported a worsening in sales in the past quarter but said it is still on track to deliver “significant profit growth” in the current financial year.
Revenues fell 3.1% to £253 million in the bootmaker’s third quarter, worse than the 0.8% seen in the first half of the fiscal year.
Full-price DTC revenue was up 2% year-to-date, reflecting management’s deliberate strategy to reduce discounting and improve revenue quality. However, this was down from 6% growth in the first half.
7.26am: EU and India agree trade deal
The EU and India have agreed a trade deal, which Ursula von der Leyen calls the “mother of all deals”.
She says the pact forms a free trade area of 2 billion people, and slashes or eliminates tariffs on over 90% of EU goods exports.
It could cut tariffs by €4 billion per year on European goods, the EU says, with tariffs of up to 44% on machinery, 22% on chemicals, 11% on pharmaceuticals mostly eliminated.
India will cut car import duties from 110% to 10% over time, while gaining zero-duty access to sell its textiles, gems, and pharmaceuticals into Europe.
Analyst Naeem Aslam at Zaye Capital Markets points to early estimates that point to €20-30 billion in added exports each year and a manufacturing jobs boost.
Europe and India are making history today. We have concluded the mother of all deals. We have created a free trade zone of two billion people, with both sides set to benefit. This is only the beginning. We will grow our strategic relationship to be even stronger.
[image or embed] — Ursula von der Leyen (
@vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu) January 27, 2026 at 6:46 AM
7.18am: FTSE 100 called higher
The FTSE 100 has been called higher as stocks continue to find their footing in what one analyst optimistically called the “post-Greenland rally”, while stocks in South Korea shrugged off a new threat of higher tariffs from the US.
London’s blue-chip equity benchmark has been called 27 points higher on the futures market, adding to the 5 points gained the day before when the index closed at 10,148.85.
Gold prices are back on the rise at $5,084 per ounce, having seen a little wobble overnight. Silver is up 6% at $110.56.
European peers also expected to start in the green, while US futures are mixed. This follows solid gains on Wall Street overnight, with the major averages grinding higher as investors positioned ahead of a busy week.
The Dow Jones led the way, climbing 0.6%, while the S&P 500 added 0.5% and the Nasdaq 0.4%.
Asian markets are all in green this morning, with the Hang Seng leading the way, up 1.3%, the Nikkei up 0.85%.
South Korea’s Kospi finished up 2.7% after starting in the red, following an announcement from US President Donald Trump that he would hike tariffs from 15% to 25% in response to Seoul not yet enacting the trade agreement reached last year.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank note that sentiment improved when South Korea’s presidential office clarified that it had not received prior notification of any tariff increase plans.
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