Games Workshop trades ahead of expectations, Arm surges on debut

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 33 points higher on Friday, having closed up 1.95% on Thursday at 7,673.08.

Stocks to watch

Games Workshop Group on Friday said trading for the quarter to August 27 was ahead of expectations driven by healthy growth across all channels. In a brief trading update ahead of its annual shareholders meeting next week, the maker of Warhammer said core revenue had risen to £121m for the quarter, ahead of the £106m posted last year with licensing revenue doubling to £6m. Pre-tax profit was estimated at around £57m, up from £39m.

Arm shares finished 25% higher on the British chip designer's eagerly awaited debut on the Nasdaq. The stock, which was priced at $51, finished at $63.59, valuing the company at $65bn. The initial public offering, which was said to be 10 times oversubscribed, is the largest stock-market flotation since 2021.

Newspaper round-up

The HS2 high-speed rail line is at risk of further cuts to its route north of Birmingham as the government considers whether it can afford high-cost projects in advance of the autumn budget. The project has been mired in fresh uncertainty after the prime minister’s spokesperson refused to guarantee on Thursday it would run to Manchester, after publication of a photographed document suggesting further cuts were under discussion. – Guardian

The BP chairman, Helge Lund, has started the hunt for a new boss to replace Bernard Looney, which could lead to the oil giant’s first external chief executive hire for decades. The chairman told BP staff in a webcast on Wednesday that he had begun the process of appointing a new chief executive and would consider hiring company outsiders to the role. – Guardian

A Court of Appeal judge has called ChatGPT “jolly useful” after he used the artificial intelligence chatbot to write part of a ruling. Lord Justice Birss, who specialises in intellectual property law, said he had used the text generation tool to summarise an area of law he was familiar with before copy and pasting its words into a court ruling. – Telegraph

Almost half of the £1.6 billion in state-backed pandemic loans provided by Starling Bank is either overdue or has effectively been written off, official figures show. An analysis of £1.41 billion worth of bounceback loans issued by Starling shows that at least £761 million is in arrears, default or has already been claimed back from the government. – The Times

The Arm flotation has breathed life back into a moribund global market for IPOs. Its performance over the coming weeks will determine the extent to which the trickle becomes a flood. Company flotations in 2022, both in tech and beyond, dried up as businesses marked time waiting for market conditions to improve. – The Times

US close

US stocks finished with decent gains on Thursday on a busy day for economic data, a blockbuster flotation and an interest-rate hike across the Pond.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both gained 0.8%.

Retail sales data, producer price inflation and jobless claims were on tap during the trading session, giving markets plenty to digest ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.

Retail sales rose by 0.6% in August after a downwardly revised 0.5% the month before, surprising economists who had expected a slowdown to 0.2% growth.

The acceleration was mainly due to higher gas prices, which jumped 5.2% last month due to OPEC+ output cuts and supply chain issues in Libya.