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Investing.com -- British stocks slipped into the red on Wednesday morning, while the pound inched higher against the dollar, climbing back toward the $1.32 mark, as wider European markets traded mixed.
As of 0823 GMT, the blue-chip index FTSE 100 dropped 0.1% and the British GBP/USD rose 0.2% against the dollar to 1.32.
DAX index in Germany gained 0.3%, the CAC 40 in France fell 0.09%.
UK round up
Paragon Banking Group PLC (LON:PAGPA) reported a 4% pre-provision profit beat, while warning investors about reduced margins expected next year. The specialist lender posted statutory profit before tax of £256.5 million for the year ended September 30, representing a 1.1% increase from the previous year. Operating profit before adjusting items rose slightly by 0.4% to £293.9 million, while pre-provision profits showed stronger growth of 5.9%, reaching £335.8 million. Looking ahead, the banking group provided guidance for a reduced net interest margin of 290-300 basis points in 2026, signaling potential pressure on this key profitability metric in the coming year.
Spire Healthcare Group plc (LON:SPI) announced that it expects its full-year adjusted EBITDA for 2025 to be around the bottom end of its guidance range of £270m to £285m, despite positive trading in recent months. The UK independent healthcare provider reported 3.6% year-over-year revenue growth for the four-month period from July to October 2025, following 4.9% growth in the first half of the year.
The engineering company Weir Group PLC (LON:WEIR) confirmed that its full-year guidance remains unchanged from its July 31 update. Weir continues to expect growth in constant currency revenue and operating profit, with operating margins of approximately 20% and free operating cash conversion between 90% and 100%.
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (LON:BLPU) has announced a new strategic collaboration with Google Cloud focused on technology innovation, AI-powered learning and core publishing infrastructure. The partnership will combine Bloomsbury’s publishing expertise with Google Cloud’s secure AI technologies, including NotebookLM, Vertex AI and Gemini Enterprise. Gemini is Google’s most capable family of multimodal AI models, while LearnLM is a specialized version fine-tuned for learning and knowledge synthesis.
Smiths Group PLC (LON:SMIN) has agreed to sell its Smiths Detection business to funds advised by CVC Capital Partners for an enterprise value of £2.0 billion, representing 16.3x headline operating profit. The transaction, which follows the recently announced sale of Smiths Interconnect, is expected to generate net cash proceeds of approximately £1.85 billion. Completion is anticipated in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and consultation with the French works council.
HSBC Holdings PLC (LON:HSBA) has appointed Brendan Nelson as Group Chair, the bank announced Wednesday. Nelson, who has been serving as interim Group Chair since October 1, joined the HSBC Board in September 2023. The appointment comes after a comprehensive selection process that evaluated both internal and external candidates for the position.
Thames Water has issued a warning about "material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt" on its status as a going concern. The water supplier, which serves 16 million customers in south-east England, indicated that a collapse into government control under a special administration regime (SAR) could happen "in the very near term." Thames Water stated this form of temporary nationalization might occur if it fails to agree on terms for a formal takeover by its controlling lenders.