London, June 26, 2026, 11:03 (BST)
- London traded normal hours, with LSE equity markets open 0800-1630 BST. No holiday was on the June 26 calendar.
- British American Tobacco added 2.1% to trade near 4,797 pence. The FTSE 100 fell 0.7% earlier in the day.
- The shares have gained about £2.6 billion in market value since the end of trading on Wednesday. That’s around double the size of BAT’s buyback planned for 2026.
- New rivals in Europe’s nicotine pouch market add pressure to Velo ahead of its upcoming share numbers.
British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS) climbed on Friday, standing out as the London market slipped. The stock kept up a rebound now in its third day, with gains adding up to more paper value than what the tobacco company has set aside for buybacks this year.
Shares traded at 4,795 pence on the sell side and 4,797 pence to buy at 10:46 BST, up 99 pence, or 2.1%. The stock hit 4,804 pence earlier. AJ Bell said BAT’s market cap was around £103.6 billion.
Food, Beverage and Tobacco names in London climbed roughly 1% even as commodity stocks pushed the FTSE 100 down 0.7% as of 0907 GMT, Reuters reported.
BAT’s re-rating is big. The stock ended Wednesday at 4,678 pence and Thursday at 4,698 pence, according to Investing.com. Based on Friday’s quote and market cap, that’s about £2.6 billion more in equity value since Wednesday.
The figure is nearly double the £1.3 billion share buyback BAT flagged for 2026. That gap is key. The past 48 hours trade more as a bet on Velo nicotine pouches and Vuse vapour making up valuation as cigarette sales slip, not just a cash-return story.
BAT is now guiding for New Category revenue to rise in the mid-teens for the first half and in 2026, moving up from a low-double-digit forecast. CEO Tadeu Marroco said “full-year delivery remains firmly on track.” He added Velo continued “excellent performance across all three regions.” Bat
BAT’s update showed mixed numbers. Velo picked up 7.4 percentage points of Modern Oral volume share in its biggest markets and jumped 10.4 points for U.S. volume share. Vuse added 4.2 points of U.S. value share. Glo heated tobacco dropped 1.6 points of volume share in top markets, and BAT’s cigarette value share in those markets slipped 20 basis points.
Hargreaves Lansdown’s Derren Nathan said in a note after the update that New Category sales picked up pace, but “the combustible market is becoming harder to navigate.” BAT lifted its forecast for global cigarette industry volumes to fall by about 2.5% in 2026, up from a 2.0% drop previously. HL
ALP, the U.S. nicotine pouch company co-owned by Tucker Carlson and Turning Point Brands Inc. (NYSE:TPB), will go live online in 11 European countries starting in July, CEO Lorenzo De Plano told Reuters. The pouch maker has about 2% of the U.S. market. “We want ALP to be everywhere,” De Plano said. Reuters
Zyn, sold by Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM), and BAT’s Velo lead the U.S. nicotine pouch market, Reuters said, citing data showing pouches as the fastest-growing product in tobacco. For Europe, Grand View Research expects the nicotine pouch market to hit over $6 billion by 2031, up from nearly $1.7 billion in 2024, according to Reuters.
Jefferies’ Andrei Andon Ionita kept a Buy call on BAT this week, sticking with a 5,500 pence price target, TipRanks data published by Longbridge shows. The target sits roughly 15% higher than where shares finished Friday. BAT is still trading close to 10% under its 52-week top of 5,326 pence.
BAT said its next results are due July 30, when it posts its Half-Year Report 2026.
