The FTSE 100 is now less than 1% away from hitting 11,000, suggesting the milestone is perfectly in reach in a matter of days or hours rather than months.
Two months in, it looks like 2026 could be a second bumper year in a row for investors putting their faith in UK stocks if current performance trends continue.
Rightmove regained its poise after a wobbly period and topped the FTSE 100 risers’ list. A resilient set of earnings, a new share buyback programme, and plans to launch an app inside ChatGPT have helped to calm investors’ nerves. Rightmove spooked the market last year with plans to spend on AI-related services, and now it is under pressure to justify this expenditure and say how it will fight off competition from generative AI platforms.
Melrose crashed 14% after disappointing with 2026 sales guidance amid supply chain and tariff issues.
International Consolidated Airlines (IAG)
British Airways-owner IAG is flying high after yet another slick performance. It has grown sales, profits and operating margins, improved returns on the money it invests in the business, and forward guidance is for more of the same.
Demand has been good for premium seats in its transatlantic flights, which is handy as British Airways is waiting on deliveries for more efficient, high premium capacity aircraft.
It’s hard to fault the latest set of results, but the market seems to want more, judging by the fairly muted share price reaction.
Senior
Senior is the latest UK stock to become a takeover target. The engineer has received three proposals from an undisclosed party this year, all rejected on grounds of valuation. It subsequently fished around for other interested parties and has received two all-cash proposals.
It means Senior is a red-hot takeover prospect and another example of the UK stock market having a veritable feast of quality businesses. What’s interesting is how Senior is not a bargain basement stock and a sitting duck on valuation grounds. It was trading at 26 times forward earnings last night, having re-rated from 13-times last May.
The fact we’ve now had three different parties show interest would suggest Senior is worth a premium price to certain buyers hoping to tap into its skills and talents.
Hays
Hays’ chief executive Dirk Hahn is leaving the recruiter after two and a half years in the top job for personal reasons. It is currently an incredibly tough jobs market and that’s illustrated by considerable weakness in Hays’ share price. The company has lost 72% of its market value over the past five years, mirroring a trend seen elsewhere in the recruitment sector.
Hahn is a Hays lifer, having climbed the ladder in the business over a 28-year stint. He will have seen plenty of good and bad times. Whoever becomes the next permanent CEO will need similar experience and a lot of smart ideas to navigate Hays back onto smoother roads.
Warner Bros / Netflix / Paramount
Dan Coatsworth, Head of Markets at AJ Bell, comments:
Any good TV show or film needs a twist at the end to surprise viewers, and Netflix has delivered it once again. Just as it looked as if Netflix had the Warner Bros deal all sewn up, it decides to walk away after Paramount upped its price for a competing offer.
The jump in Netflix’s share price in pre-market trading says it all. Investors are happy it isn’t getting carried away in the bidding war and is showing discipline. That could win the board some brownie points.
Netflix has come a long way through primarily organic growth augmented by a few small bolt-on deals. Transformational deals haven’t been Netflix’s style, and there was always a chance that buying Warner Bros could have backfired if there were cultural differences and it overpaid.
Netflix saw an opportunity to obtain a rich library of content and important production facilities. It gave the deal a lot of thought and decided it was worth a try. But it hasn’t worked, so it simply moves on with an existing strategy that could continue to deliver big bucks.
It might be good news for people with a Netflix subscription. Should it have bought Warner Bros, there was a real chance that Netflix charged customers a lot more to help pay for the deal by justifying the price hikes on providing richer content.
While Netflix customers are no longer getting their hands on Harry Potter and other Warner Bros content, they probably aren’t in line for massive price hikes, either. They might see that as a win, given there’s already plenty of choice on Netflix for stuff to watch.
Russ Mould: Investment Director
Russ Mould is AJ Bell's Investment Director. He has a Master's degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford and more than 30 years' experience of the capital markets.
He started out at Scottish...
