London, May 16, 2026, 15:05 BST
- RELX rose 2.45% on Friday to 2,423p, but still ended the week lower.
- The London market is shut for the weekend; RELX’s next regular session is Monday.
- Investors are weighing RELX’s AI-led growth pitch against fresh legal-AI competition.
RELX PLC shares bounced on Friday, outperforming a weak London market, but the data and analytics group still finished the week lower as investors kept circling the same question: whether artificial intelligence helps its business more than it threatens it.
The stock closed at 2,423p, up 58p, or 2.45%, on Friday, with 10.69 million shares traded, according to Investors Chronicle market data. The price was still down about 1.5% from the previous Friday’s 2,460p close.
That matters now because trading has stopped before a Monday restart. The London Stock Exchange runs regular trading Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in British Summer Time, so Saturday’s market is closed and the next normal session is due at the start of next week.
The wider tape was poor. The FTSE 100, London’s blue-chip index of the largest listed companies, fell 1.7% on Friday to 10,195.37, its biggest one-day fall in more than eight weeks, Reuters reported. The pressure came from UK political worries, higher borrowing costs and oil-driven inflation fears.
RELX’s move therefore looked less like a clean change in sentiment and more like a stock-specific rebound after a rough midweek. The shares had dropped 4.97% on Wednesday to 2,333p, then recovered on Thursday and Friday, Investing.com historical data showed.
The company’s own message has not changed. In its April trading update, RELX said it expected “strong underlying growth” in revenue and adjusted operating profit this year. Underlying growth strips out items such as currency moves, acquisitions, disposals and some timing effects, giving investors a cleaner view of the core business. Relx
Management also used a May 13 investor seminar to press the case for its Risk business, which sells fraud, identity, compliance and insurance decision tools. Rick Trainor, CEO of Business Services within LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said Risk represented about 36% of RELX revenue and 39% of profit in 2025, and said “the long-term fundamentals” of the unit were strong. MarketScreener
The competitive context is still tightest in legal and professional information. Reuters reported this week that Anthropic expanded legal tools for its Claude AI assistant, including integrations with Thomson Reuters platforms such as Westlaw and Practical Law. That keeps Thomson Reuters in direct focus for RELX investors, even though RELX’s portfolio is broader than legal research alone.
Analysts have not all backed away. Deutsche Bank analyst Steve Liechti kept a Buy rating on RELX on May 14 and left his target price at 3,050p, MarketScreener reported. Separate MarketScreener consensus data showed 15 analysts with an average target price of 3,618p and a mean Buy rating.
RELX has argued that its edge is not just AI, but data rights, workflow links and proprietary models. Chief Financial Officer Nick Luff told Reuters in February that RELX applied its algorithms to produce the “right judgments” and “right interpretations” for professional users making high-value decisions. Reuters
But the downside case is plain. If UK gilts — government bonds — keep selling off, or oil prices keep lifting inflation fears, defensive growth stocks may not get much shelter. Neil Wilson, investor strategist at Saxo UK, told Reuters that markets “won’t like” the political uncertainty around a possible challenge to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Reuters
For Monday, the working forecast is range-bound rather than decisive. RELX needs to hold above the 2,333p-2,352p area, where buyers returned late in the week; a move back through 2,455p-2,460p would repair more of the damage. A break below Wednesday’s 2,298p low would put the AI-risk trade back in charge.
