FTSE 100 shares round-up: Diageo, Rolls-Royce, Lloyds Banking

A Guinness sign in Lodz, Poland. Photo: Marcin Golba/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

Sales cheer at Diageo (LSE:DGE) today added to the post-election buying of Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE:RR.), Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) and gold miners to leave the FTSE 100 index trading above its record close.

The early morning peak of 10,948.24 represented a rise of 3% since the blue sweep of Congress in Tuesday’s US midterm elections removed political uncertainty and boosted hopes for an easing of financial conditions. The previous record close was 10,910 on 27 February.

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Deutsche Bank said it had been a remarkable 24 hours as the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 3% in its biggest jump since April 2025 and best midterm performance in 44 years.

The bank added: “There was relief among investors that the results weren’t disputed, which helped to reduce political uncertainty.

“Moreover, the prospect of a divided government also eased concerns about the fiscal trajectory, given it’ll now be more difficult to pass tax cuts or spending packages. That helped to bring down Treasury yields, which in turn offered further support to risk assets.”

Fears about what the election result will mean for the regulation of the data-centre buildout meant AI exposed stocks such as CoreWeave Inc Ordinary Shares - Class A (NASDAQ:CRWV) fell sharply, as did Space Exploration Technologies Corp Class A (NASDAQ:SPCX) and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) due to the election results in the home state of Elon Musk’s business empire in Texas.

In contrast, outsized gains by hyperscalers Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) reflected hopes that they will be able to slow the pace of their massive capital expenditure programmes.

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Saxo Bank said today: “The AI trade is increasingly dividing between companies building infrastructure and those monetising it.

“Opposition to data-centre expansion has gained political momentum, particularly around electricity costs, water consumption and local infrastructure. Greater scrutiny could delay projects and increase construction costs.

“Meanwhile, established hyperscalers with existing computing capacity, strong cash flows and diversified revenue streams could prove more resilient.”

While US markets are now focused on tomorrow’s non-farm payroll figures, leading stocks in the FTSE 100 index continued to benefit from the improvement in risk appetite brought about by the softening of bond yields and easing of the Brent crude oil price.

Beneficiaries included Rolls-Royce, which has risen by 3% since yesterday morning and by 10% since setting a five-month low on 23 October.

Today’s risers board also featured Lloyds for a second successive session, with the lender now 6% higher than its position of 93.3p in the aftermath of mixed third-quarter results.

There was a boost for Lloyds today when Bank of America backed shares to reach 130p, despite the impact of deposit competition on the company’s recent net interest income guidance.

Other risers in the FTSE 100 index came from the mining sector as dollar weakness and decline in Treasury yields combined to lift the gold price by another 2% to $4,135 an ounce.

The rise of 7% so far in November has rejuvenated the shares of Endeavour Mining (LSE:EDV) and Fresnillo (LSE:FRES), with respective gains of 13% and 11% over the last two sessions.

They were joined on the risers board by Diageo, which set an eight-month high of 1,862.5p after topping City expectations with first-quarter organic sales growth of 1.4%.

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The beat was driven by a resilient performance in North America, where a sales decline of 3.6% compared with the consensus forecast for a fall of 6.7%.

Diageo, whose brands include Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness, reaffirmed full-year guidance for a broadly flat sales performance.

Chief executive Dave Lewis said the company’s “biggest challenge” continued to be in North America, where Diageo has been taking action to make its offer more competitive.

Given the geopolitical uncertainty and impact of the conflict in the Middle East on energy, supply and distribution, he added that today’s results were a “small step in the right direction”.

Bank of America today backed the shares with a price target of 2,080p.

The bank said: “We remain constructive on Diageo’s medium-term recovery, supported by reinvestment, sharper execution and a $1 billion cost-savings programme that should fund growth while protecting margins.”

It added that a valuation multiple of 14.5 times forecast earnings looked attractive at a 19% discount to EU staples. “That said, visibility on the pace of US recovery remains limited and re-rating will require evidence of sustained improvement in sales, driven by the US.”

Among today’s FTSE 100 fallers, BAE Systems (LSE:BA.) lost ground for a second successive session.

The latest decline of 96p to 1,892p means BAE has given up 9% since the election result, which fuelled worries about defence spending in a country that last year accounted for 43% of the company’s £30.6 billion of sales.