Daily Stock Market Report (Thur 16th April 2026) - MERC, ALU, PMI, ANCR, DNLM, CAML, AVG, LMP, ASHM

Good morning!
The FTSE is set to open unchanged at 10,560 this morning.
The Samp;P 500 closed at an all-time high yesterday evening, and futures markets expect further small gains when US markets open later today.
Iran: The US and Iran are considering a two-week extension of the current ceasefire, which expires next Wednesday.
Energy prices:
Brent crude is treading water at $95 (it was $70.50 just prior to the war). UK natural gas futures have dropped back very significantly from their high of about 175p/therm in mid-March, now at 103.5p/therm.
UK GDP: There is a positive economic surprise this morning with UK GDP growing by 0.5% in February, according to figures just released. Expectations had been for growth of just 0.1%. However, 0.5% is still a very sluggish rate of growth - and it’s the rate of growth before the war against Iran kicked off.

Wrapping it up there, will hopefully get a chance to do some backlog sections tomorrow! Cheers. Spreadsheet accompanying this report: link.

Name (Mkt Cap)RNSSummaryOur view (Author)Tesco (LON:TSCO) (£30bn | SR73)Preliminary Results 2025/26Sales +4.3% at constant rates. Adjusted operating profit +0.6% at constant rates (to £3,152m)....