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UK shares remained muted on Thursday, with the FTSE 100 closing 0.04% lower, amid a cascade of fresh corporate updates.
Associated British Foods (ABF.L) became the worst performer on the blue-chip index after a profit warning led to a 13.99% slump in shares. For the 16 weeks ended Jan. 3, the food processing and retailing company expects a 1% year-over-year decline in constant-currency revenue. The group’s adjusted EPS for fiscal 2026 is expected to be lower than the prior year.
Tesco’s (TSCO.L) like-for-like sales in the fiscal third quarter and the recent Christmas season increased year over year, but slightly missed consensus estimates, leading to a 6.74% drop in closing trade.
“It is worth noting the 70 [basis-point] sequential slowdown in UK [like-for-like] into Christmas is against a 30bps tougher [comparable] and Tesco have outperformed the market on both a value and volume basis (value share +30bps to 29.5% in Dec),” said Deutsche Numis Research. “Operationally, Tesco have improved customer satisfaction and their relative price position in the market.”
On the upside, Marks and Spencer Group (MKS.L) climbed 4.96% after the retailer’s sales for the 13 weeks ended Dec. 27, 2025, jumped to 4.99 billion pounds sterling from 4.06 billion pounds a year earlier, and full-year guidance was maintained.
“Overall, most of the sales were as expected and whilst Clothing was a bit weaker, reflecting the market and some inventory issues for M&S, given the cyber-attack, the issues have largely been fixed ahead of 4Q,” said Deutsche Numis. “Holding the guidance is reassuring, in our view, especially as the share price has been weak since the HY results and [capital markets day] and trading on c.10x Cal 26 PE.”
On the economic side, Britain’s average house prices fell 0.6% month over month in December 2025, faster than the revised 0.1% decline in the prior month, according to data from Halifax. Analysts expected a 0.2% uptick for the month.