Early market roundup: FTSE 100 down; Computacenter shines post-Nvidia

Stock prices in London were mostly lower on Thursday morning, however blue chip stock Computacenter enjoyed a boost following Nvidia's strong interim results and outlook, while investors continued to digest Wednesday's US data.

"Yesterday, a set of US data reflecting price pressures came in stronger than expected," Swissquote' Ipek Ozkardeskaya recounted. "The core PCE figure for July came in steady at 3.3% – and in line with expectations – but the July headline figure and the set of Q2 figures printed stronger-than-expected numbers. In summary, US inflationary pressures didn't ease in July. If anything, yesterday's numbers warned that price pressures in the US require policy action.

"And the US is not an isolated case! Some European Central Bank [ECB] officials remain concerned about heated price pressures and favour further policy tightening, also encouraged by surprisingly robust euro-area growth in the face of geopolitical uncertainties and the energy crisis."

The FTSE 100 index opened down 50.02 points, 0.5%, at 10,828.10. The FTSE 250 was up 4.27 points at 24,902.11, and the AIM all-share was down 1.64 points, 0.2%, at 813.26.

The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.6% at 1,077.17, the Cboe UK 250 was marginally lower at 21,683.83, and the Cboe small companies was marginally higher at 18,999.61.

IT services provider Computacenter led the FTSE 100, up 3.7% in light of Nvidia's strong interim results and buoyant outlook late on Wednesday. Computer board and chip manufacturer Raspberry Pi was the second-highest FTSE 250 stock, up 3.9%.

Prudential was among the FTSE 100's worst performers, down 1.6%.

This was despite the London-based, Asia-focused insurer reporting a stronger performance in the first half of 2026, with new business profit rising 9.8% to USD1.38 billion from USD1.26 billion while adjusted pretax operating profit jumped 10% to USD1.81 billion. The interim dividend was 8.88 cents per share, up 15% from 7.71 cents per share a year ago.

On the FTSE 250, Halfords was the clear leader, up 11% after a highly positive trading update.

The motoring and cycling retailer now expects between £55 million and £65 million in underlying pretax profit for financial 2027, ahead of current market consensus of £52.6 million.

On AIM, Vertu Motors gained 4.7% after saying it expects financial 2027 results to beat market expectations.

And small-cap oil and gas company Aminex soared 39% higher.

Aminex has confirmed that it is in talks with Tanzania's Ministry of Energy, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp, the Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority and ARA Petroleum Tanzania with a view to progressing the implementation of the Ntorya Gas Development.

In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.3%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 0.1%.

The pound was quoted almost flat at USD1.3591 early Thursday, compared to USD1.3590 on Wednesday. Against the euro, sterling fell to EUR1.1658 from EUR1.1664 a day prior. The euro stood slightly higher at USD1.1654, against USD1.1651. Against the yen, the dollar was trading lower at JPY159.31 compared to JPY159.37.

In Asia on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was down 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 1.1%, but the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.3%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 1.0%.

In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.2%, the S&P 500 down slightly, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.1%.

Nvidia gained 4.7% after hours, after its second-quarter results impressed.

"We wake up to one of these days: Nvidia's earnings can't be ignored," Ozkardeskaya commented. "No matter how high the expectations were...Nvidia managed to beat ALL of these expectations. The company printed revenue of USD96bn – beating the highest bar of Wall Street expectations. Profit more than doubled to USD54bn in Q2 this year compared to a year ago. And more importantly, Nvidia said that it expects to earn USD108bn (+/-2%) in the current quarter...around USD4bn higher than what analysts had pencilled in...Funny enough, though, these numbers alone couldn't give Nvidia shares a boost in after-hours trading.

"What made the difference was the company's CFO telling investors that the company's revenue would grow 70% in fiscal year 2028 – and, wait – the latter would be 100% if they weren't facing supply constraints!"

She also highlighted the "stronger-than-expected earnings" from Salesforce and Crowdstrike, which shot up 13% and 10% in after-hours trading, respectively.

The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.64%, narrowing from 4.66%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 5.17%, narrowing from 5.18%.

Brent oil was quoted at USD85.88 a barrel early in London on Thursday, down from USD88.09 late Wednesday.

Gold was quoted softly lower at USD4,596.03 an ounce against USD4,596.56.

"Gold prices recovered to some extent on Thursday after Wednesday's drop from a three-month high, but could remain under pressure," said Kudo's Konstantinos Chrysikos. "Slightly firmer US Treasury yields and a stable dollar limited the rebound, while caution remains ahead of the Jackson Hole Symposium."

Still to come on Thursday's economic calendar, the Jackson Hole symposium commences, and the US has weekly jobless data and wholesale inventories.

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