London, March 20, 2026, 19:55 GMT
SSE shares fell about 3% on Friday to close at 2,573 pence, underperforming a weak London market. The FTSE 100 ended down 1.4%. 1
The move matters because SSE had touched a 52-week high of 2,763 pence on March 17, and Jefferies raised its target price to 3,060 pence from 2,510 this week, according to Alliance News. Friday’s pullback suggests investors are looking past broker support and back at what higher UK borrowing costs could mean for rate-sensitive utilities. 1
London’s benchmark index has now fallen for three straight sessions. Traders are pricing a roughly 70% chance of a Bank of England rate rise by April after the central bank kept rates at 3.75% on Thursday and warned inflation posed the bigger risk. Peer utilities moved the same way: National Grid dropped 3.1% and United Utilities lost 2.2%. 2
SSE’s own update was better. The company said its 150MW/300MWh Ferrybridge battery energy storage system in West Yorkshire had entered full operation. Battery storage systems hold electricity and release it when demand peaks; SSE said Ferrybridge can run for up to two hours at full output, and Heather Donald, director of onshore wind, solar and battery at SSE Renewables, said the site would provide “critical support” for grid flexibility and resilience. 3
A filing showed SSE admitted 5,017,734 new ordinary shares to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s main market. Almost all were issued under its scrip dividend scheme, which lets shareholders take new shares instead of cash dividends, with a small remainder coming from employee share options. 4
The next company dates are close. SSE is due to issue a closed-period notice on April 2 and report preliminary results for the year ended March 31 on May 28. At its February trading update, the company guided to adjusted earnings per share of 144 pence to 152 pence, down from 160.9 pence a year earlier, and CFO Barry O’Regan said the focus was on “accelerating investment” under its 33 billion pound plan. 5
That regulatory backdrop still matters. Earlier this month SSE accepted Ofgem’s RIIO-T3 final determination for transmission, a five-year price-control settlement that runs from April 2026 to March 2031 and sets the revenue framework for the grid business. SSE said the package was “investable and deliverable”. 6
But the near-term risk is plain. If the Middle East war keeps energy prices high and pushes gilt yields higher, that could keep pressure on utilities, which often fund long-life grid and renewable assets with debt. J.P. Morgan now expects the Bank of England to raise rates in April and July, and BNP Paribas has also flagged a near-term hike risk. 7
For now, Friday’s slide leaves SSE below the March 17 peak after a week that mixed operational updates with a harsher market backdrop. The stock is still near the top of its 52-week range. What happens next may depend less on one battery milestone than on whether rate fears cool before May results. 1
