Weekly review
By Benjamin Chiou
Date: Friday 13 Nov 2026
(Sharecast News) - The FTSE 100 rose 2.1% for the week, closing Friday's session at 10,902.56.
Equity view
IT services provider Kainos reported a 37% jump in first-half revenue to £268.8m, while adjusted pre-tax profit increased 30% to £41.7m, supported by strong sales across its three divisions. Bookings rose 27% to £402.3m, while contracted backlog grew 26% to £853m.
Vodafone raised its full-year earnings and cash flow guidance despite swinging to a first-half loss of €3.6bn from a €1.1bn profit a year earlier, reflecting non-cash accounting charges and continued challenges in Germany. Revenue rose 11.4% to €21.9bn, while the telecoms group increased its adjusted EBITDAaL forecast to €13.2bn-€13.4bn from €13bn-€13.3bn and its adjusted free cash flow outlook to €2.8bn-€3bn from €2.6bn-€2.9bn.
Taylor Wimpey warned that full-year adjusted operating profit would be towards the bottom of market expectations after a weaker autumn selling season and elevated mortgage rates hit buyer affordability. The housebuilder cut its forecast for UK completions to around 10,500 from 10,600-10,800 previously, although it maintained its year-end net cash guidance of approximately £250m.
ITV cautioned that advertising revenue at its television and streaming division would fall between 5% and 10% in the fourth quarter, as broadcasters continued to face a difficult advertising market. Group revenue declined 1% in the nine months to September, while third-quarter advertising revenue fell 8%, prompting the company to forecast a full-year advertising decline of around 2% to 3%.
Rolls-Royce launched a further £1.5bn share buyback programme after substantially completing its existing £2.5bn repurchase scheme, citing strong demand across its civil aerospace, defence and power systems businesses. The latest programme forms part of the engineering group's plans to return £7bn-£9bn to shareholders between 2026 and 2028.
Burberry returned to profit in the first half as its turnaround strategy continued to gain traction, reporting a pre-tax profit of £19m compared with a £48m loss a year earlier. Shares in the luxury fashion group jumped 8% following the results, making it one of the FTSE 100's strongest performers.
Private equity investor 3i Group announced a new £750m share buyback as its largest portfolio investment, discount retailer Action, continued to deliver growth. The group generated a total return of £1.62bn, equivalent to 5% of opening shareholders' funds, compared with £3.29bn, or 13%, a year earlier, although net asset value per share increased to 3,154p from 3,030p at the end of March.
Discount retailer B&M surged after introducing guidance for its 2027 financial year and reporting that its turnaround efforts were beginning to produce improvements in UK trading. The company said its domestic stores had returned to like-for-like sales growth, providing evidence of progress under its back-to-basics strategy.
Aviva said it expected full-year earnings per share growth to be broadly in line with its 11% target after general insurance premiums increased 19% to almost £12bn in the first nine months. UK and Ireland premiums climbed 27% to £8.5bn, supported by the acquisition of Direct Line, while wealth net flows rose 31% to £10.9bn.
Land Securities reaffirmed its full-year outlook after like-for-like net rental income increased 6.2% in the six months to September, ahead of its previous guidance for growth of 3% to 5%. Pre-tax profit more than doubled to £243m from £98m, helped by valuation gains, while earnings per share were broadly unchanged at 25.9p.
Economic news
Grocery price inflation continued to edge upwards in October, industry research showed, as retail's critical golden quarter got underway. According to data from Worldpanel by Numerator, like-for-like grocery price inflation was 2.6% in the four weeks to 1 November, up from 2.5% in September and 2.3% a month prior to that.
UK retail sales growth remained subdued in October as consumers postponed purchases ahead of Black Friday and Christmas while contending with higher household costs. Total retail sales increased 1.5% year-on-year, compared with 1.6% growth a year earlier, as food sales rose 3.2% but non-food sales stagnated, according to the British Retail Consortium and KPMG.
The UK economy expanded by 1.9% year-on-year in the third quarter, its strongest annual growth in almost two years, despite higher energy prices and borrowing costs. GDP rose 0.7% quarter-on-quarter, in line with expectations, as services output increased 0.9%, offsetting a 0.7% decline in construction, while monthly growth reached 0.2% in September.
The UK's trade deficit in goods and services widened by £6.2bn to £10.4bn in the third quarter, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The deterioration reflected imports increasing faster than exports, adding to evidence of pressure on the country's external trade position.
International events
Global financial markets rallied as oil prices retreated on renewed hopes of an end to the conflict between the US and Iran, after President Donald Trump suggested further military action was unlikely. Brent crude was trading at around $96.50 a barrel on Friday, marking a 1.8% fall for the week and a near-9% drop over the past month.
US inflation came in above expectations in October, reinforcing concerns that the Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates further to bring price pressures under control. Headline consumer prices increased 0.4% month-on-month, easing from 0.6% in September but exceeding forecasts of 0.3%, while core inflation rose 0.3% against expectations of 0.2%.
Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller warned that persistent inflation could require substantial increases in interest rates, rejecting suggestions that adjustments to the central bank's balance sheet could provide an adequate alternative. He argued that policymakers needed to prevent financial markets from easing monetary conditions in a way that undermined efforts to control inflation.
German inflation slowed more sharply than expected in October, raising hopes that price pressures in Europe's largest economy were beginning to moderate. Annual consumer price growth eased to 2.8% from 3.3% in September, below forecasts of around 3% to 3.1%.
The world oil market has returned to surplus as shipments rebounded amid the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East. According to the International Energy Agency's latest market report, the oil market was showing "tentative signs of rebalancing", with oil supplies surpassing demand for the first time since war broke out between the US and Iran.
A major global Microsoft outage disrupted businesses, government agencies and public services, with users unable to access Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services. The disruption spread from the US across Asia-Pacific and Europe, affecting several UK police forces and schools, while the technology giant said it was seeing improvements as engineers worked to restore services.
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