Marcin Frąckiewicz

Experian finished the session down 0.62% at 2,738 pence on Friday, despite unveiling what it claims is the UK's first credit score app built within ChatGPT. The new offering allows people to check average credit scores by postcode and age, drawing on aggregated and anonymised data. Edu Castro, managing director for Experian Consumer Services UK&I, described it as a "quick and simple way" for people to see how they stack up. The market barely budged. Experian is in the thick of it, pushing to show its data can fuel consumer AI offerings just as investors weigh what generative AI might do to the future of information and analytics players. The stock took a hit in February—lumped in with other London-listed

Autotrader Group traded around 492 pence on Friday, gaining ground despite a fresh disclosure showing Baillie Gifford cut its stake to 4.996% from 5.053%. Shares outperformed the FTSE 100, which slipped 0.43%. Investors tracked the latest on the UK online car platform at its investor site. The change is significant: management insists the rolling buyback continues, yet investors have kept their distance since January. The sticking point? Deal Builder. That’s Autotrader’s digital platform for reserving cars, trading in, and sorting finance online. Jefferies flagged the April pricing event linked to that launch—dealer pushback made it tough to handicap, so the shares have stayed skittish, quick to react to even a hint of momentum or a stumble.

Diageo shares picked up 2.1% in London on Friday, closing at 1,467.5 pence. The move followed the Guinness and Johnnie Walker owner’s release of a supplement to its base prospectus—the core document behind its debt offerings. Still, those gains left the stock hovering close to the lower end of its 52-week band, which runs from 1,420.5 pence up to 2,215 pence. The timing raises eyebrows: just two weeks after new CEO Dave Lewis slashed Diageo’s fiscal 2026 forecast and chopped the interim dividend in half, putting growth, cash flow, and debt in the spotlight. But this latest filing? Investors got scant evidence of any real shift in the balance sheet strain or turnaround strategy.

Standard Chartered shares struggled again Friday. Reuters market data pegged the stock’s monthly slide at roughly 13%, deepening as turmoil in the Middle East rattled bank stocks and crude prices stuck above $100 a barrel. European banks lagged the most among sectors, shedding 1.9%, with Standard Chartered and HSBC both weighing on the index. Here's the upshot: J.P. Morgan points to Standard Chartered and HSBC as the two big European banks with the largest exposure in the Middle East. The firm figures the region makes up roughly 8% of StanChart’s revenue, and a heftier 12% of its profit before tax. Barclays and BNP Paribas? Both see less than 1% of their revenue and profit coming from the Middle East.