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Chipmaker Nvidia has increased its value by £214bn, generating the biggest rise in market value of any company in a single trading day in history.
Shares rose 16 percent in New York yesterday. The rise surpasses the £156bn profit made by Facebook owner Meta in early February.
It comes after Nvidia posted strong results and an optimistic forecast late Wednesday, adding fuel to the artificial intelligence-led rally in tech stocks.
Revenue more than doubled to more than $60bn (£47.5bn) in its last financial year, while profits soared to almost $3bn (£2.4bn). pounds sterling).
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said: ‘Accelerated computing and generative artificial intelligence have reached an inflection point. Demand is increasing around the world.’
In demand: Nvidia shares rose almost 15% yesterday in New York. The rise surpasses the £156bn profit made by Facebook owner Meta in early February.
The group is one of the most valuable companies on Wall Street as the AI craze drove US stock markets to record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.18 percent, while the S&P 500 rose 2.11 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 2.96 percent.
In London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.3 per cent, or 21.98 points, to 7,684.49 and the FTSE 250 rose 0.8 per cent, or 144.53 points, to 19,263.50.
Anglo American became the latest miner to cut its dividend after its payout for 2023 fell to £940m, from the £1.9bn it paid the previous year. Glencore and Rio Tinto earlier this week also delivered less to shareholders.
It comes as weaker metals and diamond prices caused Anglo American’s profits to fall 94 per cent to £223m.
The FTSE 100 miner had a torrid year as the diamond and platinum group metals markets collapsed and it cut its copper production prospects.
It has written down £2bn on its diamond and nickel businesses and recorded a £1.3bn impairment charge on its De Beers diamond division, as well as a £700m writedown for a nickel mine in Brazil after the price of the metal fell from all-time highs in 2022. .
Stock Watch – Marlowe
Investors in Marlowe look set to receive a bumper payout following a £430m deal with European private equity firm Inflexion.
The group, which helps companies comply with regulations in areas such as employment and health and safety, is selling some software assets.
It will use the money to pay off its debt and return more than £150m to shareholders.
A restructuring will also see the departure of Marlowe’s chief executive, Alex Dacre, who founded it in 2015. The shares rose 18.1 per cent, or 77p, to 502p.
Still, the shares rose 3 per cent, or 52 pence, to 1,769.8 pence.
A stellar performance from its generics business, which makes substances used in nasal sprays and inhalers, helped pharmaceutical company Hikma report a sharp rise in revenue and profits for 2023. The shares rose 4.3 percent, or 85 .5p, up to 2,083p.
Morgan Sindall reported record results thanks to booming business in the construction company’s office space renovation division.
Group revenue rose 14 per cent to £4.1bn last year, while profits soared 69 per cent to £143.9m. It rose 3.4 per cent, or 75p, to 2,290p.
Paypoint has teamed up with Royal Mail to allow customers to drop off their parcels at 5,000 of the payments company’s UK stores, news that sent shares up 3.1 per cent, or 15.5 pence, to 510 pennies.
Instant service equipment company ME Group (up 20 per cent, or 26.6p, to 159.4p), said revenue rose 15 per cent to almost £300m in the year to the end of October, while profits rose by a quarter to £67.1m.
Beazley rose 8.9 per cent, or 52p, to 634p after the insurer outlined plans to return an additional $300m (£236.7m) to shareholders by 2023 following a number of claims better than expected.
Money manager Jupiter Fund said assets under management rose 4 per cent to £52.2 billion in 2023, while net outflows fell to £2.2 billion, down from £3 .5 billion pounds the previous year. It rose 10.7 per cent, or 8.75p, to 90.75p.
Advertising agency M&C Saatchi rose 0.3 per cent, or 0.5p, to 176.5p after naming former Channel 4 executive Zaid Al-Qassab as its next boss.
Bytes Technology, which sank 10.7 per cent on Wednesday, recovered some losses (rising 1.6 per cent, or 8.5 pence, to 545.5 pence), a day after the company’s boss of IT software will resign.