FTSE 100 Modestly Lower In Lackluster Trade

(RTTNews) - The UK market is down slightly around noon on Thursday with investors largely making cautious moves amid concerns over the potential impact of the trade war.

The benchmark FTSE 100 is down 23.32 points or 0.27% at 8,517.65 nearly half an hour past noon.

Halma is rising nearly 3% after the company announced that it expects an Adjusted EBIT margin modestly above 21% for the full year ending in March.

Halma's guidance for good organic constant currency revenue growth for fiscal 2025 remains unchanged from when announced with its half-yearly results in November 2024.

AstraZeneca, Airtel Africa, Rentokil Initial, Imperial Brands, Shell, Standard Chartered, Marks & Spencer and Legal & General are gaining 1 to 1.7%.

Vodafone Group is up nearly 1%. Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC Holdings, Aviva, Kingfisher and Diageo are moderately higher.

Entain, Melrose Industries, Fresnillo, Persimmon, Whitbread, Coca-Cola HBC and Barratt Redrow are down 2.2 to 2.7%.

Shares of delivery service provider Deliveroo plc are down 5.7% after the company signaled a more extended timeline for achieving its key profitability targets.

The company reporting a profit of 2.9 million pounds for fiscal 2024, compared to prior year's loss of 31.8 million pounds. Adjusted EBITDA, a key earnings metric, climbed 52% to 129.6 million pounds from 85.4 million pounds a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 1.7% from last year's 1.2%.

Intertek Group is declining nearly 2%. Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Diploma, Natwest Group, St. James's Place, Taylor Wimpey, Mondi, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Hiscox and Croda International are also down sharply.