Shares in consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser surged 10% on Friday morning, making it the biggest riser on the FTSE 100.
The stock rose following a US court ruling that cleared the company’s subsidiary, Mead Johnson, and US firm Abbott Laboratories of liability in case over its pre-term infant formula.
The case focused on whether companies were aware of intestinal disease risks linked to its premature baby formula but failed to issue warnings on these risks.
In a statement, Mead Johnson said the verdict in this case “demonstrates that the claims in this case were not supported by the science or experts in the medical community”.
“We will continue to vigorously defend ourselves against all other cases in the interest of safeguarding the health of premature babies,” the company said.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Investors are clearly relieved the manufacturers have been cleared by this court, but other trials are pending, and the companies were found liable in other cases. The companies’ overall liability was estimated at up to $2.5 billion.”
“However, there is clearly a hope that costs for Reckitt may be more limited given this outcome of this case,” she added.
Tesco said it expected to start this buyback after it completes the final part of its current £1bn buyback programme.
A share buyback, or share repurchase, is when a company rebuys its own shares and returns funds to its investors. When a company repurchases its own shares, this reduces the number of shares held by the public, so it can boost demand for the stock and their price.
Tesco shares were up nearly 1% on Friday morning, following this latest update.
The supermarket first announced that it would be selling its banking operations to Barclays in February and that it would be entering into a 10-year partnership with the bank, which it said had now begun.
Under its deal with Barclays, Tesco has retained all existing insurance and money services activities, including ATMs, travel money and gift cards.
Ken Murphy, group CEO of Tesco, said: “Through our strategic partnership, customers will have access to new and innovative propositions, while continuing to enjoy the unique benefits of Tesco Clubcard.”
C.S. Venkatakrishnan, group CEO of Barclays, said the acquisition of Tesco’s banking operations was “an important step in increasing our investment in the UK”.
In its interim results, released at the beginning of October, Tesco posted solid sales and operating profit growth, leading it raise its full-year guidance for retail adjusted operating profits to around £2.9bn from “at least” £2.8bn.
Shares in Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group were muted on Friday, despite the news that fast-fashion retailer Boohoo Group (BOO.L) had shunned the retail tycoon’s request to become its CEO and picked Debenhams boss Dan Finley to take on the role.
Boohoo Group, which owns Debenhams, announced on Friday that it had appointed Finley to take on the CEO role for the group with immediate effect.
This comes after Frasers Group, Boohoo’s largest shareholder said in a open letter last week that the company was facing a “leadership crisis”.
Frasers Group said Boohoo had seen “abysmal trading performance and share price collapse” and claimed that its board had “lost its ability to manage boohoo’s business and investments”.
Boohoo shares have tumbled since 2021 and are down 25% year-to-date.
In its letter, Frasers Group requested that Ashley be appointed as director and CEO of the company.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: “While relatively young for a CEO at 41, Finley’s background looks solid, having spent a decade as a JD Sports director and then nearly three years helping to transform Debenhams as a digital entity.
“Clearly that’s not a patch on Ashley’s extensive retail experience, but it’s the right type of CV to grab the top job for a company of Boohoo’s size.”
House price growth slowed in October, according to figures from lender Nationwide released on Friday.
The data showed that the average hour price in the UK rose to £265,738 in October, up 2.4% from last year, though represented a slowdown from the 3.2% pace reported in the previous month. Month-on-month, the price of a typical UK home edged up by just 0.1% in October from September.
This latest data comes following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ announcement in the budget that the rate of stamp duty on second homes is rising from 3% to 5%.
Robert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide, said: “The main impact of the stamp duty changes is likely to be on the timing of property transactions, as purchasers aim to ensure their house purchases complete before the tax change takes effect.
“This will lead to a jump in transactions in the first three months of 2025 (especially March), and a corresponding period of weakness in the following three to six months, as occurred in the wake of previous stamp duty changes.”
Despite these headwinds, housebuilders saw little movement on Friday, with the UK’s biggest company in the sector, Barratt Redrow, (BTRW.L) flat in morning trading. Vistry (VTY.L) was down the most of the FTSE 100-listed housebuilders, but was only 0.7% in the red. Berkeley Group (BKG.L) and Taylor Wimpey (TW.L) shares were also flat.
EasyJet started Friday’s session as the biggest faller in the FTSE 100 but was down 0.8% by mid-morning trading.
British Airways-parent International Airlines Group (IAG.L) was trading more than 1% in the red by mid-morning Friday.
Reeves said that the flight tax had “not kept up with inflation in recent years” so she said it would be rising by no more than £2 on economy class short-haul flights from 2026-27.
She also announced that higher rate for larger private jets would rise by a further 50% and said that these measures would raise more than £700m by the end of the Treasury forecast period.
