FTSE 100 continues record run, Darktrace rallies on buyout deal (updated)
26/04/2024 09:41
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Darktrace rallies after Thoma Bravo's buyout deal
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U.S. PCE data due at 0830 ET
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FTSE 100 up 0.4%, FTSE 250 adds 1%
(Updated at 0825 GMT)
By Pranav Kashyap and Sruthi Shankar
April 26 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 rose to another
record high on Friday as strong earnings from U.S. tech giants
buoyed investor sentiment, while cybersecurity firm Darktrace
rallied following a buyout deal by private equity firm Thoma
Bravo.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 .FTSE was up 0.4%, hitting a record
for a fourth consecutive session. The index is set for its
biggest weekly gain in more than seven months.
"The combination of recovering earnings and reasonable
prices continue to make things look quite attractive for the UK
market," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Group.
"Yesterday’s earnings just reassure everybody. If you had a
nasty miss from either or both of them, you would have been
looking at a fairly different marketplace this morning," he
said, referring to Alphabet GOOGL.O and Microsoft MSFT.O .
Sentiment in Asian and broader European markets was
optimistic after upbeat earnings from Wall Street tech titans
Alphabet and Microsoft. .N
NatWest NWG.L jumped 3.5% to touch a more than
one-year-high after the British bank's first-quarter profit fell
by a less-than-expected 27%.
Anglo American AAL.L slipped 0.8% after it rejected BHP
Group's BHP.AX 31.1 billion pound ($38.88 billion) takeover
proposal, saying the bid significantly undervalued the
London-listed miner and its future prospects. The stock had
rallied 16% following BHP's offer on Thursday.
BHP's UK-listed stock BHPB.L fell 1.5%.
The mip-cap FTSE 250 .FTMC gained 1%, with Darktrace
DARK.L rallying 19.3% after Thoma Bravo agreed to buy the Mike
Lynch-backed cybersecurity company for about $5.32 billion.
"It's a whopping 40% premium and what people are seeing is a
chance to exit the business at a very reasonable price. It's a
sign of the strength of the firm," IG Group's Beauchamp said.
Meanwhile, British consumer sentiment returned to a two-year
high this month as households took a more positive view of the
economy and their own finances, a long-running survey showed.
Investors will keep a close eye on the U.S. inflation data
later in the day for clues on when the Federal Reserve will
start easing monetary policy.
Convatec Group plc CTEC.L fell 6.4% after Peel Hunt
downgraded the stock to "reduce" from "add".
(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru;
Editing by Sonia Cheema and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
((Pranav.Kashyap@thomsonreuters.com;))
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