The Ftse 100 broke its winning streak during trading hours, with London’s benchmark index shedding 59.14 points to finish at 10,627.04, representing a decline of 0.60 per cent.
Today’s stock market drop comes following a slip in British Gas’ owners profits and growing geopolitical tensions between US President Donald Trump and the Iranian regime.
British Gas parent company Centrica suffered the steepest losses on the blue-chip index, tumbling 4.7 per cent after announcing it would halt its share repurchase programme to redirect funds toward infrastructure projects, including nuclear power generation.
The energy supplier had distributed £1.1billion to investors throughout 2025, with £800million coming via buybacks. Its £2billion repurchase scheme concluded in January, having acquired a quarter of the company’s outstanding shares.
The Ftse 100 plummets amid growing geopolitical tensions
In a statement, Centrica said: “We are now pausing the programme as we believe investment offers an opportunity to create more value for shareholders at this juncture.”
Despite the broader market weakness, oil giants provided some support for the index.
BP shares advanced two per cent while Shell gained 0.5 per cent, buoyed by climbing crude prices linked to heightened Middle East uncertainty.
Brent crude jumped to $71.71 per barrel on Thursday afternoon, up from $69.62 the previous day, as concerns mounted over potential conflict with Iran.
Chris O’Shea has pocketed a sizable bonus despite British Gas profits nearly halving | GETTY
The City of London is happy with the stock market’s peformance | PA
US President Donald Trump pressed Tehran to reach a “meaningful” agreement during the inaugural session of his Board of Peace initiative aimed at Gaza stability.
He said: “It’s proven to be over the years not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran. We have to make a meaningful deal otherwise bad things happen.”
The President cautioned that Washington “may have to take it a step further” without progress, suggesting developments could unfold “over the next probably 10 days”.
Sterling weakened sharply against the dollar, dropping to $1.3455 on Thursday afternoon compared with $1.3548 at the previous day’s close.
Donald Trump has called for a regime change in Iran | GETTY
However, StoneX analyst Fawad Razaqzada suggested the market pullback might prove temporary. Mr Razaqzada shared: “The index fell back as investors digest a number of earnings results. But the downside could prove to be short-lived.
“Supported by a weaker pound and expectations that the Bank of England will cut rates in March, and potentially again in June, investors have been piling into UK stocks lately. That trend is likely to stay for a while yet.”
He added that climbing oil prices driven by Middle East tensions were helping to limit losses, with energy stocks such as BP offering support to the index. Across the continent, European markets also retreated, with Paris’s Cac 40 declining 0.4 per cent and Frankfurt’s Dax 40 falling 0.9 per ecnt.
The Ftse 250 dropped 112.95 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 23,573.49. Wall Street traded lower during the session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.5 per cent, the S&P 500 off 0.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite losing 0.2 per cent.