Finance
FTSE 100 hits 2-month high on strong earnings
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 20, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 20, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
FTSE 100 hit a two-month high on strong earnings, with major gains from Diploma and Vodafone. Investors await updates on UK inflation and G7 trade deals.
(Reuters) -The British benchmark index FTSE 100 closed at a two-month high on Tuesday, buoyed by strong corporate earnings, while investors awaited updates on trade-related developments.
The FTSE 100 rose 0.94%, with a majority of the firms listed in the index trading in green.
The domestically focused FTSE 250 gained 0.7%, touching a more than three-month high.
Diploma gained 15.1%, hitting an all-time high after the technical products and service distributor raised its full-year, organic revenue growth forecast.
Vodafone gained 7.3% after the mobile and broadband provider forecast growth in its largest market - Germany.
Smiths Group rose 4.4% after the engineering company said annual organic revenue growth would reach the top end of its forecast range.
Barclays advanced 1.2% after the British bank hired former UBS banker Marc Warm as its global co-head of capital markets.
Greggs gained 9.2% and boosted the midcap index after the fast-food chain reported sales growth picking up as the year progressed.
Cranswick advanced 3.8% after the meat producer posted annual pretax profit ahead of market forecasts.
On Monday, Britain reached a wide-ranging deal with the European Union including a security and defence pact, fewer restrictions on British food exporters and visitors, and a contentious new fishing agreement.
Meanwhile, Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill said the central bank's pace of interest rate cuts had been too fast given still-strong wage pressures on inflation.
Focus will be on Britain's inflation data, which is set to be released on Wednesday.
A Reuters poll of economists predicted that Britain's economy would grow a bit faster this year than thought a month ago, partly due to unexpectedly strong growth in the first quarter that was not expected to persist.
Investors will also look for trade-related deals coming out of the Group of Seven industrialised democracies' meeting in Canada later on Tuesday. Participants were expected to strive for unity on non-tariff issues.
(Reporting by Ragini Mathur, Twesha Dikshit and Sanchayaita Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)
The main topic is the FTSE 100 reaching a two-month high due to strong corporate earnings.
Diploma, Vodafone, and Barclays were key contributors to the FTSE 100's rise.
Britain's new deal with the EU and upcoming inflation data are influencing the market.
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