Thursday, February 19

Stocks slump as miners and British Gas owner Centrica pull London lower


The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) and European stocks were off to a lacklustre start on Thursday morning, despite the surge higher from Wall Street and Asian markets overnight.

Mining stocks led the index lower, with Rio Tinto (RIO.L) down 3.4%, after reporting flat earnings ahead of the open. Net profit fell 14% to $10bn for 2025 due to higher depreciation, taxes and financing costs.

Meanwhile, British Gas owner Centrica (CNA.L) announced it was stopping share buyback plans after it suffered a 39% drop in profits for full-year 2025.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell to £1.4bn for the year, down from £2.3bn a year earlier, as its household supply arm was knocked by an £80m warm weather hit and as customers switched to cheaper deals.

However, that was ahead of average analyst forecasts for £1.3bn.

Centrica (CNA.L) boss Chris O’Shea said it had been a “challenging” year for the business: “2025 has been a year of real momentum and we have made bold investments as we continue the fundamental transformation of Centrica (CNA.L). The environment has been challenging, and performance has varied across the business.”

“However, we have remained disciplined, delivering strong operational performance and achieving customer growth across all our retail businesses simultaneously for the first time in over a decade.”

Shares plummeted as much as 9% on the back of the news.

Elsewhere, traders also digested minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting, which showed some policymakers even considered further tightening amid sticky inflation.

  • London’s benchmark index (^FTSE) was 0.4% lower in early trade.

  • Germany’s DAX (^GDAXI) dipped 0.3% and the CAC (^FCHI) in Paris headed 0.4% into the red.

  • The pan-European STOXX 600 (^STOXX) was down around 0.2%.

  • Wall Street is set for a positive start as S&P 500 futures (ES=F), Dow futures (YM=F) and Nasdaq futures (NQ=F) were all in the green.

  • The pound was up 0.1% against the US dollar (GBPUSD=X) at 1.3512.

FTSE Index – Delayed Quote USD

10,643.93 -42.25 (-0.40%)

As of 9:07:04 GMT. Market open.

Follow along for live updates throughout the day:

LIVE 3 updates

  • Centrica slumps as profits plunge and buyback paused

    British Gas owner Centrica (CNA.L) saw its shares slumped as much as 9% on Thursday after it put share buybacks on hold in order “to prioritise investment that creates lasting value for shareholders”.

    Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell to £1.4bn for the year, down from £2.3bn a year earlier. However, that was ahead of average analyst forecasts for £1.3bn.

    The residential energy supply business delivered £163m, down from £269m due to negative weather and commodity curve impacts.

    Centrica boss Chris O’Shea said:

    LSE – Delayed Quote USD

    179.85 -16.15 (-8.24%)

    As of 9:07:05 GMT. Market open.

  • Asia and US overnight

    Stocks in Asia were higher overnight, despite China and Hong Kong remaining close for the lunar holiday, with the Nikkei (^N225) up 0.6% on the day in Japan and in South Korea, the Kospi (^KS11) added 3.1%.

    It came as Australian job numbers showed that total employment increased by 17,800 in January, which was close to the consensus forecasts of around 20,000. However, the unemployment rate surprisingly remained stable at 4.1%, a tenth below expectations.

    Three and 10-year Aussie yields are 7.8bps and 6bps higher respectively.

    Across the pond on Wall Street, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.6%, with almost two-thirds of the index higher on the day, though defensive sectors including consumer staples (-0.53%) and utilities (-1.70%) underperformed.

    The tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) closed 0.8% higher and the Dow Jones (^DJI) also gained 0.3%.

    Part of the catalyst for the rally were pre-US market reports that Nvidia (NVDA) had agreed to supply Meta (META) with large quantities of processors over the coming years. The news boosted both technology and semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 0.96% and the Magnificent 7 rising 0.77%.

    The equity rally was reinforced by solid US economic data. January industrial production rose 0.7% month-on-month versus expectations of 0.4%, while factory output increased 0.6%, also beating forecasts.

    These prints marked the biggest monthly rises in eleven months.

    Next up on the data front is today’s jobless claims (215k vs. 226k) will be closely watched, given their overlap with the February employment survey period.

    SNP – Delayed Quote USD

    6,881.31 +38.09 (+0.56%)

    At close: 18 February at 16:34:14 GMT-5

  • Coming up

    Good morning, and welcome back to our markets live blog. As usual we will be taking a deep dive into what’s moving markets, and what’s happening across the global economy.

    Looking ahead, today brings further US data including the February Philadelphia Fed business outlook, January pending home sales and initial jobless claims. Elsewhere, we’ll see France’s January retail sales, Italy’s December current account balance, Eurozone December construction output and February consumer confidence.

    Central bank events include the ECB’s economic bulletin and speeches from Fed officials Bostic, Kashkari and Goolsbee. Notable earnings include Walmart, Nestlé and Airbus, while the US will also auction $9bn of 30 year TIPS.

    Here’s a quick snapshot of the agenda:

    • 7am: Trading updates: CRH, Centrica, Mondi

    • 11am: CBI Industrial Trends Orders

    • 1.30pm: US International Trade in Goods and Services, December and Annual 2025

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