Winners and losers: defence stocks lead FTSE 100 retreat
Some recent favourites are among the session’s blue-chip casualties, but there are positive returns in the FTSE 250. Graeme Evans runs through the risers and fallers.
21st April 2026 15:41
by Graeme Evans from interactive investor
Rolls-Royce’s UltraFan jet engine technology. Credit: Rolls-Royce via Flickr.
Weaker Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE:RR.) and BAE Systems (LSE:BA.) shares today weighed as the FTSE 100 index failed to match a return to positive territory by the FTSE 250 and Wall Street benchmarks.
The UK’s top flight extended Monday’s 0.6% decline with a reverse of 70 points to 10,538, whereas gains for mid-cap stocks including Ocado Group (LSE:OCDO), THG Ordinary Share (LSE:THG) and Wetherspoon (J D) (LSE:JDW) helped the FTSE 250 put back a chunk of last night’s 1.2% decline - up 152 points to 23,092.
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The S&P 500 index opened higher, boosted by optimism over Middle East peace and an earnings season that has so far seen most companies beat expectations.
Tech stocks also improved after last night’s fall ended a 13-day streak by the Nasdaq, which had been the longest winning run since 1992 and fifth best in its 55-year history.
The selling of Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems and Melrose Industries (LSE:MRO) in the FTSE 100 followed a trading update by Euronext-listed defence, aerospace and cyber security firm Thales (EURONEXT:HO).
It reported a 75% organic year-on-year jump in defence orders for the first quarter, part of a 23% increase across all its operating segments to 4.65 billion euros (£4.05 billion) in the three months.
The company said Middle East events had reinforced the relevance of its solutions, especially in the fields of air surveillance and air defence as well as underwater mine warfare.
It booked five defence orders with a unit value of more than 100 million euros in the first quarter, compared with just one in the same period of 2025.
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However, the big increase in defence order intake still came in 10% below the market consensus, while the overall figure missed by 5%. First-quarter sales growth of 9.7% to 5.3 billion euros offset some of the disappointment after coming in 2% higher than expected.
BAE Systems gave up recent gains by falling 61.5p to 2,178p, while Rolls dropped 61.4p to 1,201p and GKN Aerospace business Melrose dipped 14.8p to 541.2p.
Sentiment was also impacted by downgrades for European defence and aviation firms Leonardo SpA Az nom Post raggruppamento (MTA:LDO) and Safran SA (EURONEXT:SAF) as analysts at Jefferies moved to Hold positions on both stocks.
Other fallers in the FTSE 100 included AstraZeneca (LSE:AZN), GSK (LSE:GSK) and Imperial Brands (LSE:IMB), while LexisNexis and Elsevier journals firm RELX (LSE:REL) rallied 58p to 2,764p after Barclays lifted its price stance to 3,095p with an Overweight recommendation.
In the FTSE 250, Ocado extended its rise since the start of the last week to 20% after the grocery warehouse technology stock put on another 7.2p to 215.4p in today’s session.
Pub chain JD Wetherspoon also continued its recent recovery by adding 20p to 637.5p, which compares with a one-year low of 555p set on 20 March.
The latest increase followed the support of City firm Peel Hunt, which reiterated its 750p price target on the back of signs of easing labour cost pressures and increasing pricing firepower.
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Moving to an Add stance, the bank said: “JDW’s low price and margin model is very sensitive to changes in costs and prices. In our view, it is time for a surprise on the upside.”
THG shares rose 1.4p to 40p, the highest level since late January after the beauty and nutrition e-commerce firm best known for the brands Lookfantastic and Myprotein reported its strongest first-quarter growth performance since 2021.
The 7% improvement followed an acceleration in the Beauty division to 5.8%, alongside 8.8% improvement by THG Nutrition.
Chief executive Matt Moulding said: “It is energising for everyone at THG to see such a strong start to 2026, building on the better-than-expected momentum we delivered in H2 2025.”
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