UK Stocks-Factors to watch on May 8 (updated)
08/05/2026 07:51
Adds news items, updates futures
May 8 (Reuters) -
Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening lower on Friday, with futures FFIc1 down 0.81%.
* IAG: British Airways owner IAG ICAG.L
forecast
annual profit to be lower than originally anticipated, saying soaring jet fuel costs and supply disruptions driven by the Iran War will weigh more heavily on earnings than previously expected.
* INTERTEK: Britain's Intertek ITRK.L
rejected
a sweetened 8.93 billion pound ($12.12 billion) takeover proposal from Swedish private equity firm EQT AB EQTAB.ST, saying it undervalued the product testing company and carried high execution risk.
* AIRTEL AFRICA: Airtel Africa AAF.L said that it has
delayed
the planned initial public offering of its mobile money business to the second half of 2026, citing market uncertainties amid the ongoing Middle East war.
*RIGHTMOVE: Rightmove RMV.L
reaffirmed
its 2026 revenue and operating profit guidance as its core membership increased with the continued rollout of artificial intelligence-powered tools.
* BP: BP BP.L CEO Meg O'Neill told staff that a reorganisation into two main business units - upstream and downstream - will start in June, three sources familiar with the call said.
* UNILEVER: With Unilever ULVR.L set to spin off its food unit and merge it with U.S. peer McCormick MKC.N, some investors plan to press the combined entity to adopt the same standards against deforestation and environmental risks as Unilever.
* LLOYD'S OF LONDON: Lloyd's of London is weighing how much of the findings of its governance investigation to disclose publicly, with chair Sir Charles Roxburgh resistant to significant disclosures, the Financial Times.
* HOUSING MARKET: British house prices fell in April from March as concerns about the impact of the war in Iran hurt buyer demand and they rose by the least in annual terms since December, as per Halifax.
* COMMODITIES:
Oil
prices rose,
gold
rose too, while
copper
prices fell.
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: LIVE/
TODAY'S UK PAPERS
> Financial Times PRESS/FT
> Other business headlines PRESS/GB
(Compiled by Roshni Srivastava in Bengaluru)
((roshni.srivastava@thomsonreuters.com))