The latest Halifax house price index showed a small uptick in average home prices in January. Notably, the average selling price topped the £300,000 level for the first time. ‘STEADY FOOTING’ Average UK house prices rose by 0.7% in January compared with December and 1% compared with the previous year. The average price touched £300,077, a new milestone for the survey. ‘The housing market entered 2026 on a steady footing’, commented Halifax head of mortgages Amanda Bryden. However, while activity levels showed a resilient market, ‘affordability remains a challenge for many would-be buyers’ added Bryden. The building society sees house…

Specialty chemicals group Victrex (VCT) maintained its FY26 financial guidance despite a drop in Q1 sales. The firm makes high-performance polymers for customers in the automotive, aerospace, healthcare, industrial and energy sectors. Share price: 654p (-6%)PE: 16.4xMarket cap: £565mYield: 8.5% SLOW START TO FY26 For the quarter to December, the firm reported a 4% drop in volumes and a 2% drop in selling prices. That resulted in a 6% drop in revenue to £858 million from £898 million the previous year. The firm said volume growth in energy and industrial markets was offset by ‘more subdued’ demand from transport and…

The world’s largest shipping company AP Moller Maersk warned it could make an operating loss next year. That was despite posting FY25 revenue and profit at the top end of market expectations. Share price: DKK 15,095 (-5.6%)PE: 12.4xMarket Cap: $36.5bnYield 2.9% RECORD FY25 RESULTS Maersk delivered a ‘strong’ performance in 2025, with growth across all its businesses, said CEO Vincent Clerc. Volume growth, sound execution and proactive cost measures helped results hit the top end of financial guidance. The Danish firm, which operates over 700 vessels, said Ocean revenue grew 4.9% last year ‘despite volatile markets’. Meanwhile, the Terminals business…

In this article we discuss three ways to reduce risk in your stock portfolio, if you feel the need. As investors, we all have different risk appetites: some people embrace it while others try to minimise it. However, all investing involves some kind of risk in order to generate a return. What you need to work out is what level of risk you personally are comfortable with. Sometimes, such as when markets are in a steady uptrend, risk is the last thing you might think about. Conversely, when markets are choppy and volatility is rising you might feel you want…

Shares in oil giant Shell (SHEL) fell 2% after the firm posted Q4 earnings which missed analysts’ forecasts. The firm blamed lower crude and LNG prices together with lower trading income and lower chemical margins for the miss. Share price: £28.00 (-2%)PE: 13.6xMarket cap: £160bnYield: 3.8% WEAKER TRADING For the three months to December, Shell reported net profit of $3.26 billion against a consensus estimate of $3.51 billion. Earnings were down 11% on the previous year and 40% on the previous quarter. The miss is surprising as Q4 earnings included a non-recurring net gain of $1.2 billion from asset sales.…

Shares in pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly (LLY) gained 8% after the firm raised its 2026 profit guidance. That took its market cap to $968 billion, making it the next company in contention for a $1 trillion valuation. Share price: $1,080 (+8%)PE: 48x Market cap: $968bnYield: 0.55% WEIGHT-LOSS DRUGS LEAD Eli Lilly raised its FY26 outlook after reporting a strong end to FY25 thanks to sales of weight-loss drugs. Q4 revenue leapt 43% to $19.29 billion, well above the Wall Street consensus of $17.94 billion. US revenue was up 43%, driven by a 50% increase in volumes, with a small decrease…

Shares in UK drugmaker GSK (GSK) gained 2% after the company confirmed its FY26 guidance. In contrast, shares in Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk plummeted 18% after the firm predicted a drop in sales in 2026. GSK share price: £19.85 (+2%)PE: 14xMarket cap: £78.3bnYield: 3.3% POSITIVE PROGRESS AT GSK GSK reported an increase in group sales in 2025 helped by a jump in specialty medicines, in particular oncology. Group revenue rose 4% to £32.7 billion with sales of specialty treatments rising 17% to £13.5 billion. HIV sales rose 11% to £7.7 billion while Respiratory, Immunology and Inflammation sales rose 18% to…

FTSE 100 insurer Beazley (BEZ) announced it has agreed an £8 billion takeover by Swiss giant Zurich. The offer, pitched at £13.35/share including dividends, represents a 60% premium to Beazley’s undisturbed share price. Share price: £12.64 (+9%)PE: 10.9xMarket Cap: £7.4bnYield: 2.2% HEFTY PREMIUM On 19 January, the Lloyds of London syndicate operator revealed it had received two approaches from Zurich. The Swiss firm initially pitched its offer at £12.30/share, followed by a second offer at £12.80/share. Today’s offer of £13.35/share comprises £13.10 for the underlying business plus 25p for the FY25 dividend. As well as a 60% premium to the…

Shares in Anglo-Dutch data group RELX (REL) hit a new year low on worries over AI (artificial intelligence) competition. US firm Anthropic is seen as a particular threat after it unveiled a new AI tool for legal teams. Share price: £21.90 (-15%)PE: 21.4xMarket cap: £39.7bnYield: 2.5% AI-POWERED SOLUTIONS RELX shares, which were already down 15% since the start of the year, lost a further 15% on the Anthropic news. Rival European publishing group Wolters Kluwer also saw its shares tumble on the news. Anthropic, the company behind the AI chatbot Claude, added new functions for legal users of its Cowork…

Shares in trading platform Plus500 (PLUS) surged to a new high on news it is expanding in the prediction market. The firm announced a new clearing deal allowing it to offer Kalshi Exchange products on its B2C platform. Share price: £45.25 (+6.6%)PE: 17.3xMarket Cap: £3.1bnYield: 2.3% ALL-TIME HIGH Shares in Plus500 gained 280p or 6.6% to a new all-time high of £45.25 on today’s news. The deal with Kalshi will enable US retail customers to bet on economic, political and financial events through swaps. An event contract is a swap with a binary outcome of Yes or No. It pays…