BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks are modestly higher Tuesday morning with investors digesting some earnings updates and other corporate news while continuing to follow the developments in Germany where a new government is set to take charge soon. Worries about fresh U.S. tariffs and uncertainty about the Trump administration's economic policies limit market's upside.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 34.52 points or 0.4% at 8,693.50 a little while ago.
Smith & Nephew is rising nearly 7% on strong results. The medical equipment manufacturing company reported attributable profit for the year of $412 million, higher than last year's $263 million. Earnings per share rose to 47.0 cents from 30.1 cents a year ago.
Looking ahead, for fiscal 2025, the company expects underlying revenue growth of around 5% and reported revenue growth of around 4.8% respectively. First-quarter underlying revenue growth is expected to be in the range of 1-2%. The company also expects trading profit margin in the range of 19-20% for fiscal 2025.
BAE Systems is gaining about 2.5% on reports Germany's chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has opened talks with the Social Democrats to quickly approve as much as €200 billion ($210 billion) in special defense spending.
Natwest Group, HSBC Holdings, Standard Chartered and Barclays Group are gaining 1 to 2%, while Lloyds Banking Group is up 0.75%.
Easyjet, Unite Group, AstraZeneca, GSK, Convatec Group, Entain, Rolls Royce Holdings, BT Group, Hiscox, Shell, Severn Trent, Aviva and Melrose Industries are up 0.5 to 1.1%.
Scottish Mortgage, Rio Tinto and Ashtead Group are down 2.3%, 2.1% and 2%, respectively. JD Sports Fashion is declining nearly 2%.
Unilever, Polar Capital Technology Trust, Bunzl, Informa, Pearson, Halma, Antofagasta, Persimmon and Intertek Group are down 1 to 1.7%.
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