Lloyds Bank among high-flying stocks leading FTSE 100 to 10,000

After lagging Wall Street for years, the UK’s blue-chip index is outperforming the S&P 500 this year. City writer Graeme Evans names the stocks responsible.

12th November 2025 14:24

by Graeme Evans from interactive investor

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The Lloyds Bank logo in Macclesfield, England. Photo: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images.

All-time highs for heavyweights AstraZeneca (LSE:AZN) and HSBC Holdings (LSE:HSBA) have combined with strong Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE:RR.) and Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) trading to leave the FTSE 100 index on the cusp of 10,000.

The push towards the five-figure landmark follows a 21% rise so far this year and an even more remarkable surge of 29% since the top flight’s post-tariffs low of 7,679 on 9 April.

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The bounce from that 2025 low point has produced gains of 50% or more for shareholders of 20 blue-chip stocks, including Barclays (LSE:BARC), NatWest Group (LSE:NWG) and International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG).

Source: TradingView. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

The best performers over that period have been the Mexican miner Fresnillo (LSE:FRES), which is up 179% thanks to the surge in the prices of gold and silver, and Airtel Africa Ordinary Shares (LSE:AAF) after a rise of 115%.

The telecoms and mobile money services business is one of six companies to have hit record highs so far this week, with the others being HSBC, IMI (LSE:IMI), SSE (LSE:SSE), AstraZeneca and Next (LSE:NXT).

AstraZeneca is now worth £208 billion as the most valuable company in the FTSE 100 index, followed by HSBC as the next largest at £190 billion.

The drugs giant is up by more than a fifth since September, boosted by a three-year pause on tariffs after it pledged that all its medicines sold in America are made in America.

The City is backing further upside from today’s 13,410p, with Berenberg highlighting a price target of 14,500p and Jefferies at 15,000p in the wake of last week’s third-quarter results.

Shore Capital notes the shares trade on a multiple of about 15.5 times forecast earnings, ahead of peers on 13-14 times but broadly in-line to Astra’s historic 16 times multiple.

The broker’s 14,500p target implies 18.5 times, a premium it believes is justifiable given pipeline momentum, limited exposure to patent expiries and its earnings trajectory.

Forecast-beating third-quarter results have propelled HSBC shares to new highs in recent days, leaving them 50% higher since 7 April and up by 41% on the start of the year.

Elsewhere in the strongly performing banking sector, Barclays and Standard Chartered (LSE:STAN) are up by 75% since the tariffs shock and by 58% and 65% respectively year-to-date.

Lloyds today traded at a multi-year high of 95.6p, which compares with 40p two years ago. Jefferies recently backed the shares to reach 105p and for an acceleration in dividend growth to a 2027 total distribution of 6p a share compared with the 3.17p declared for 2024.

NatWest also set a new post-financial crisis peak in today’s session, lifting to 622.2p compared with the 374p seen in the first days of 2025. Recent momentum has been helped by hopes that the sector will avoid additional taxes in the Budget in a fortnight’s time.

Source: TradingView. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Another strong year for Rolls-Royce means the engine supplier is now the fifth-largest company in the FTSE 100 index, with its valuation of £96 billion placing it ahead of British American Tobacco (LSE:BATS) and BP (LSE:BP.). Shell (LSE:SHEL) and Unilever (LSE:ULVR) make up the top flight’s top five.

Ahead of tomorrow’s third-quarter update, the shares stood 81% higher than their post-tariffs low at a price of 1,141p. They were less than 100p in early 2023, when newly appointed chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic likened the business to a “burning platform”.

Among the other companies at an all-time high during a boom year for the FTSE 100 index, SSE shares today hit a record 2,238p after it announced an accelerated five-year £33 billion investment plan to upgrade the UK’s electricity network.

Despite the dilution of a £2 billion share placing, the stock surged as SSE said its regulated asset value will increase at an around 25% compound annual growth rate. It also forecast annual dividend growth of between 5% to 10% from the 64.2p seen in the most recent financial year.

IMI traded at a record price yesterday after the global leader in fluid and motion control last week reported consensus-beating results, driven by rising global energy demand and a focus on high-margin aftermarket orders. The shares are up by 54% from their April low.

These articles are provided for information purposes only. Occasionally, an opinion about whether to buy or sell a specific investment may be provided by third parties. The content is not intended to be a personal recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or product, or to adopt any investment strategy as it is not provided based on an assessment of your investing knowledge and experience, your financial situation or your investment objectives. The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, may go down as well as up. You may not get back all the money that you invest. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.

Full performance can be found on the company or index summary page on the interactive investor website. Simply click on the company's or index name highlighted in the article.

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