𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The FTSE 100 edged lower on Friday, as US President Donald Trump said he was now making a “final” decision on whether or not to strike a peace deal with Iran.

The FTSE 100 closed down 16.68 points, 0.2%, at 10,409.28.

The FTSE 250 ended up 100.85 points, 0.4%, at 23,425.77, while the Aim All-Share rose 7.62 points, 0.9%, to 821.25.

For the week, the FTSE 100 fell 0.3%, the FTSE 250 firmed 2.1% and the Aim-All Share climbed 3.3%.

In a lengthy social media post, Mr Trump on Friday said: “I will be meeting now, in the Situation Room, to make a final determination”, stressing that Iran must agree never to have nuclear weapons and to open the Hormuz shipping lanes.

In the post, Mr Trump said that Iran “will complete the immediate removal” of mines in the strait and that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports “will now be lifted”, allowing oil and other tankers to start moving.

However, it was not clear if Iran had agreed to this or whether the US blockade had actually been lifted ahead of Mr Trump making his decision.

US vice president JD Vance had earlier said Washington and Tehran are close to agreeing a deal to extend their ceasefire in the Middle East war, although the potential breakthrough still hangs on Mr Trump’s approval.

The news saw Brent crude for July delivery trade lower at 91.62 dollars a barrel on Friday, down from 94.57 dollars at the time of the equities close in London on Thursday.

In European equity markets on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended down 0.1%, and the Dax 40 in Frankfurt closed 0.1% higher.

In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7%, the S&P 500 was 0.3% higher, and the Nasdaq Composite firmed 0.2%.

On Wall Street, Dell stole the show storming 31% higher as first quarter earnings beat expectations and it raised top-line guidance by 30 billion dollars for financial 2027 to 165 billion dollars to 169 billion dollars.

Dell is “blowing the socks off expectations” and raising its outlook “materially”, analysts at JPMorgan said.

The pound traded at 1.3479 dollars on Friday afternoon, up from 1.3435 dollars on Thursday.

Against the euro, sterling firmed to 1.1543 euro from 1.1530 euro on Thursday.

The Governor of the Bank of England has said that allowing inflation to remain above target levels for a period is “appropriate” in the face of uncertainty and weakness in the economy.

Andrew Bailey told an audience in Reykjavik, Iceland, that reacting too early to inflation concerns “may generate undesirable volatility”.

He said: “Given the context of softness in the real economy and uncertainty around the scale and duration of the shock, tolerating temporarily above target inflation to provide some support for the real economy is an appropriate way to approach the trade-off.

“But that tolerance would weaken if signs of second-round effects begin to emerge.”

The yield on the US 10-year Treasury narrowed to 4.43% on Friday from 4.46% on Thursday.

The yield on the US 30-year Treasury trimmed to 4.97% from 4.99%.

The euro traded higher against the greenback, at 1.1680 dollars on Friday against 1.1653 dollars on Thursday.

Against the yen, the dollar was trading at 159.15 yen, lower than 159.23 yen.

Gold traded at 4,584.74 dollars an ounce on Friday, up from 4,479.57 dollars on Thursday.

The rise in the price of the yellow metal lifted Endeavour Mining, up 4.2%, and Fresnillo, up 1.4%.

On the FTSE 250, Ocado soared 7.1% after announcing an agreement to develop supermarket Asda’s online business across the UK.

Leeds-based Asda is one of the UK’s largest grocers, with total sales in 2025 of more than £21 billion, and operations across 1,100 stores nationwide.

Asda’s online grocery business fulfils more than 700,000 ecommerce orders weekly.

Based on comparable arrangements, Bank of America estimates fees in the range of 0.7% to 1.0% of sales, implying annual revenue of around £21 million to £30 million once the rollout is complete by financial 2028.

“We view the agreement as a positive development for Ocado,” said BofA, adding, the contract should be “highly profitable”.

RBC Capital Markets thinks the deal is a “small negative” for Asda’s rivals, Tesco and J Sainsbury.

It said: “We expect this to be a significant upgrade to Asda’s ecommerce capabilities and should allow it to compete better in a fast growing part of the grocery market.

“As such, we see this as a potential small negative for the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury’s, albeit we note that both of these players have had strong ecommerce offers for some time now, which are both likely more profitable than this arrangement will be for Asda.

“Even so, it is a further step forward in the turnaround for Asda.”

Shares in Tesco were down 2.2% while J Sainsbury was 2.3% lower.

Other retailers were on the back foot as Deustche Bank Research downgraded ratings for Wickes, Dunelm, Currys and B&M European Value Retail, sending the four down 2.2%, 2.3%, 1.0% and 2.4% respectively.

Although the retail sector has derated since March, as consensus expectations have come down on inflationary concerns, “we still see downside risks for lower income consumers and big ticket spend”, said Deutsche Bank analysts.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Endeavour Mining, up 184.0p at 4,594.0p, Autotrader, up 14.3p at 441.5p, Airtel Africa, up 8.2p at 352.6p, Convatec, up 3.9p at 202.2p and DCC, up 115.0p at 6,005.0p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were SSE, down 74.0p at 2,331.0p, Diageo, down 46.5p at 1,535.5p, Imperial Brands, down 73.0p at 2,696.0p, British American Tobacco, down 116.0p at 4,591.0p, and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, down 170.0p at 6,670.0p.

Monday’s global economic calendar has slew of manufacturing PMI reports, eurozone unemployment figures, and retail sales data in Germany.

Next week’s local corporate calendar has a trading update from Dunhill and Lucky Strike owner British American Tobacco on Tuesday and full-year results from water utility Pennon, also on Tuesday.

– Contributed by Alliance News