FTSE 100 Down More Than 1%

(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks are down firmly in negative territory Thursday morning with investors taking some profits, while reacting to corporate earnings updates and awaiting the European Central Bank's interest rate decision later in the day.

Worries about tariffs have eased slightly for now following the Trump administration deciding to delay car tariffs for Canada and Mexico by a month. Still, uncertainty about Trump's trade and economic policies appear to be weighing a bit on sentiment.

The benchmark FTSE 100, which dropped to 8,645.21, was down 95.10 points or 1.09% at 8,660.74 a little while ago.

Melrose Industries is tanking more than 11% despite the company's earnings for 2024 coming in line with expectations. The company has forecast strong future cash generation.

Rentokil Initial is down 5.6% after reporing a decline in pre-tax income for the full year. For the 12-month period to December 31, 2024, the company posted a profit before tax of 405 million pounds, lesser than 493 million pounds in the previous year. Excluding items, pre-tax income was 703 million pounds, compared with 766 million pounds a year ago.

Marks & Spencer, LondonMetric Property, Compass Group, Informa, 3i, Pearson, Intermediate Capital, Halma, Rio Tinto and Relx are down 2 to 4%.

Experian, HSBC Holdings, Diageo, Diploma, Intercontinental Hotels, Tesco and Segro are also notably lower.

British nutrition products maker Reckitt Benckiser is up 1.8% despite the company reporting lower profit in fiscal 2024, with slight decline in revenues. Looking ahead, for the first quarter, the company expects mid-to-high single digit growth in Emerging Markets, with Europe flat. In North America, the company projects low-single digit growth.

Motor and home insurer Admiral Group is up more than 6% after reporting a 90% jump in annual pre-tax profit.

Endeavour Mining plc is up marginally, after reporting earnings before taxes of $99 million for the fourth quarter compared with loss of $82 million in the same quarter a year ago.

ITV Plc is up 5% after reporting statutory profit before tax of 521 million pounds for twelve months ended 31 December 2024, compared to 193 million pounds, last year.

On the economic front, the UK construction sector registered the sharpest contraction since May 2020 on notable falls in orders and output, survey results from S&P Global showed on Thursday.

The construction Purchasing Managers' Index fell unexpectedly to 44.6 in February from 48.1 in January. The reading was seen at 49.5.