FTSE 100 Moderately Lower; WPP Tanks On Lower Earnings, Forecast

(RTTNews) - The UK stock market is down in negative territory on Thursday, mirroring the trend in other major European markets, as investors react to the latest batch of earnings announcements from the domestic and global front, and some regional economic data.

Investors are also digesting the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut and the signal about future policy moves, in addition to awaiting the policy announcement from the European Central Bank.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 57.16 points or 0.59% at 9,698.98 a few minutes before noon.

Standard Chartered is up 2.2% after reporting higher quarterly profit and lifting its income and return outlook. Profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was $1.03 billion, up 10% from $931 million a year ago. Basic earnings per share grew 7.7% to 44.5 US cents from 36.8 US cents last year.

Airtel Africa is rising 3.2%, extending gains from the previous session. Auto Trader Group, Easyjet, Sainsbury (J), Rolls-Royce Holdings, Games Workshop, Tesco and BP are up 0.4 to 1%.

WPP is tanking nearly 14% after the company cut its growth forecasts. The British advertising major reported lower revenues in its third quarter and first nine months of fiscal 2025, with weak performance in all regions and business segments. Further, the company trimmed fiscal 2025 outlook.

In the third quarter, total group revenue of 3.26 billion pounds was down 8.4% year-over-year on a reported basis and down 3.5% on a like-for-like or LFL basis.

Looking ahead, citing the trading year to date and the outlook for the fourth quarter, the company now expects LFL growth in revenue less pass-through costs to be down 5.5% to down 6%,0 compared to previous estimate of down 3% to down 5%.

Whitbread is down nearly 3%, while Glencore, M&G, Burberry Group, Segro, Next, Marks & Spencer, Relx and Pearson are down 1.4 to 2%.