{"id":660113,"date":"2025-12-29T11:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T11:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/660113\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T11:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T11:06:14","slug":"london-shares-flat-after-christmas-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/660113\/","title":{"rendered":"London shares flat after Christmas break"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">\u201c2025 has been a year of two halves for equity investors,\u201d says Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">\u201cOverall, markets have held up well, but heading into 2026, global tensions and a mixed economic outlook mean there could be sharper share price swings next year,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">The good news? \u201cUncertain times can suit long-term investors. Trying to call every short-term turn rarely works. A better plan is to spread money across regions, sectors and asset types, rather than relying on one theme or one market,\u201d Nathan says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">For investors looking to diversify and strengthen portfolios for the years ahead, Hargreaves Lansdown identifies three of its five shares to watch in 2026, each with a distinctive thematic case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Marks &amp; Spencer (<a data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/MKS.L\" data-ylk=\"slk:MKS.L;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MKS.L<\/a>) goes into 2026 looking to rebuild after a tough year. \u201cA cyber-attack hit online sales, mainly in Fashion, Home &amp; Beauty, but bosses expect systems to be back to normal by spring,\u201d Nathan notes. The Food division continues to win customers, and \u201cif spending on digital and margins pays off, profits could bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Novo Nordisk (<a data-i13n=\"cpos:2;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/NVO\" data-ylk=\"slk:NVO;cpos:2;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NVO<\/a>) had a challenging 2025, as \u201csupply was tight, rivals pushed harder, and pricing came under pressure in diabetes and obesity care.\u201d Even so, demand remains huge. Nathan adds that \u201cmore factory capacity, stronger action against illegal copy drugs and the recent approval of its oral weight-loss pill could lift confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Nvidia (<a data-i13n=\"cpos:3;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/NVDA\" data-ylk=\"slk:NVDA;cpos:3;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NVDA<\/a>) remains central to the AI build-out. \u201cCompetition is rising, and some big buyers want more than one supplier, but the firm\u2019s fast pace of new chips and strong position in advanced computing keep it central to big tech spending,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c2025 has been a year of two halves for equity investors,\u201d says Derren Nathan, head of equity research&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,1880,4884,112546,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-660113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-ftse-100","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-interactive-investor","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115802536886796927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}