It’s looking to be a very quiet day for corporate news as the Easter break creeps onto the horizon, but the key drivers appear to be a continuation of yesterday’s dissection of the impact of Trump’s tariffs. Standard Chartered is one of the biggest fallers in early trade, extending Thursday’s losses as the emerging market focused bank eyes a challenging time ahead. The stock has now given back all of its year to date gains, with the Standard Chartered share price down a further 3.5% in early trade.
Keeping with that tariff theme, but this time looking at stocks that are likely to find a degree of insulation from the fall out and UK utilities have been a natural pick. SSE was one of the best performers in early trade on Friday as the company’s core operation are very much centred within the UK and Ireland, with other units dotted across continental Europe. Shares were trading 3% higher shortly after the open.
And another stock faring well off the back of tariff news is Diageo, with investors lending support off the back of the fact the outcome could have been significantly worse. Whilst there will be an inevitable impact on prices paid by the US consumer here, in a number of instances there’s a lack of replacement goods and with US inflation likely to remain stubbornly high, some overseas imports may well remain competitive. The Diageo share price was 2% higher at 8.30am.
Most read news on Investegate this morning
bp chair announces intention to step down - - BP (BP.)
Opening new Wade/Gatic building extension - - Alumasc Group (ALU)
Beowulf announces final terms of capital raise - - Beowulf Mining (BEM)
