Daily market update: Standard Chartered, Alibaba

“The FTSE 100 was flat on Friday in early trading, despite advances for Asian stocks overnight,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“The gains in Hong Kong and China came amid renewed excitement about the tech sector in the region as Alibaba announced big AI spending plans.

“In the UK, financials were in demand after a strong set of results from Standard Chartered and miners also made some progress, but there was corresponding weakness in precious metals and energy stocks.

“Pharmaceutical firm GSK was also on the back foot amid speculation it could be targeted by activist investors after a long period of lagging behind its rivals.”

Standard Chartered

“You wouldn’t normally expect a profit miss to get a positive reception, but investors have been prepared to look past this at Standard Chartered and concentrate instead on a big increase in the dividend, a bumper buyback and a meaningful improvement in underlying performance.

“Standard Chartered is a very different animal from most of its UK-listed banking peers, operating exclusively in much less mature markets in Africa and Asia. This gives the company plenty of growth to go after, something which is particularly evident right now in its Asian wealth management arm.

“The lower-than-expected headline profit is due to a software impairment, and given this is a non-cash item it is not all that surprising that the market has been prepared to overlook it.

“The company’s work to achieve efficiencies in the business is paying off with income rising much more quickly than costs. With all these positive pointers, there may be some surprise that the company has left forward guidance unchanged.

“And yet a dose of conservatism may now pay off down the line if it allows the company to outmatch current expectations in the future.”

Alibaba

“Chinese e-commerce and tech outfit Alibaba excited Hong Kong investors with plans for a big increase in AI spending. Following the emergence of DeepSeek, China has put itself firmly in the artificial intelligence conversation after the theme had been dominated up until now by US names.

“Alibaba has already made strong progress in 2025 off the back of DeepSeek’s launch and an eye-catching tie-up with Apple to roll-out AI features for iPhones sold in China.

“The seeming rehabilitation with Beijing of returning founder Jack Ma has also been taken positively after his recent presence at a meeting of Chinese entrepreneurs and the country’s president Xi Jinping.

“For now, the market appears to be excited about Alibaba’s AI largesse but, in the same way the theme has developed in the US, before long it will want to see some evidence of a tangible return on this investment.”

These articles are for information purposes only and are not a personal recommendation or advice.