FTSE 100 Notably Lower; Johnson Matthey Soars 32%

(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks are down in negative territory on Thursday afternoon, in line with other major markets in Europe, as worries about U.S. fiscal deficit and rising bond yields weigh on equities. Investors, digesting the nation's economic data, are also awaiting more clarity on U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff plans.

The benchmark FTSE 100 is down 72.77 points or 0.83% at 8,713.69 nearly an hour past noon.

British Land Company, a real estate investment and development company, is down 3.7% after saying it expects earnings to be flat next year.

Airline EasyJet is down 3.65% after reporting wider loss for the first-half of its current financial year. In the first half, loss before tax widened to 401 million pounds from last year's loss of 347 million pounds. Basic loss per share was 39.5 pence, compared to loss of 34.3 pence a year ago.

Johnson Matthey is soaring more than 32% after the industrial group confirmed that it is in advanced discussions over a potential sale of a unit involved in the production of sustainable aviation fuel.

JD Sports Fashion is rising more than 3%. Convatec Group, Marks & Spencer, BAE Systems, Endavour Mining and Rolls-Royce Holdings are up with moderate gains.

DCC is down 4.7%. Intermediate Capital Group, Persimmon, Intertek Group, Experian, Barratt Redrow, Melrose Industries and Weir Group are also down sharply.

S&P Global said the Global UK Composite PMI rose to 49.4 in May of 2025 from 48.5 in April, according to a flash estimate. Activity declined manufacturing sector with the index coming in a 45.1 for May, compared to 45.4 in April, reflecting the sharpest drop in 19 months. The Services PMI reading was 50.2 for May according to flash estimate, up from 49.0 in April.

UK public sector net borrowing in April was the highest in any month since April 2021, the Office for National Statistics said. Public sector net borrowing rose by GBP 1.0 billion to GBP 20.2 billion in April. This was the highest borrowing since April 2021 and was also above economists' forecast of GBP 18.0 billion.

It is also the fourth-highest April borrowing since monthly records began in 1993, behind April 2020 and 2021 borrowing, the ONS said.

In the financial year ending March, PSNB totaled GBP 148.3 billion. While this was GBP 3.7 billion lower than the initial estimate published in April 2025, it was above the GBP 137.3 billion forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility.