The UK's FTSE 100 concluded the week with a notable increase of 0.61%, largely attributed to impressive earnings reports from leading companies within the country. The Weir Group, denoted by the ticker $WEIR, emerged as the foremost gainer on the blue-chip index, climbing by 6.30% after revealing higher attributable profits, despite facing a decline in revenue projections for the year 2024.
Furthermore, the Scottish engineering giant has made headlines by agreeing to acquire the Australian mining software provider, Mining Software Holdings, for an enterprise value estimated at 657 million pounds in cash. This acquisition is set to close in the second quarter of 2025. Weir's Chief Executive Officer, Jon Stanton, expressed optimism regarding the company's performance, stating, "For [2025], we expect to deliver growth in revenue, operating profit, and margins.
We anticipate that our Performance Excellence programme will yield incremental savings of [20 million pounds] in 2025, totaling cumulative savings of [80 million pounds] by 2026, which will enable us to move our operating margins sustainably beyond the 20% mark." In addition to Weir, other companies such as IMI ($IMI), Pearson ($PSON), and British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group ($IAG) also reported significant climbs in their stock values, rising by 5.81%, 1.95%, and 4.02%, respectively.
These increases come on the heels of year-over-year growth in their earnings. IMI has additionally announced a share buyback program worth 200 million pounds, while IAG is poised to return up to 1 billion euros to its shareholders over the next year. On a slightly different note, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca ($AZN) reported that a panel from the European Medicines Agency has recommended approval for its drug Enhertu, which was developed in collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo, as a monotherapy for treating adults with unresectable or metastatic hormone receptor-positive, HER2-low, or HER2-ultralow breast cancer.
However, AstraZeneca's stock witnessed a minor decline of 0.42% by the close of trading on Friday. Shifting gears to the economic landscape, Britain’s house price growth rate experienced a slight deceleration, easing to 3.9% in February from 4.1% in January, according to data released by Nationwide Building Society.
Analysts had projected a growth rate of 3.4% for the month. Looking ahead, Nationwide's Chief Economist, Robert Gardner, commented on the anticipated changes to stamp duty set to take effect at the beginning of April, suggesting that these modifications might lead to fluctuations in property transactions in the short term.
"As buyers rush to make purchases in order to circumvent the additional tax, we can expect a surge in transactions in March. This could subsequently be followed by a period of reduced activity in the months that follow, similar to past instances of stamp duty adjustments," Gardner remarked..