Rolls-Royce has regained its £60bn value as shares in the FTSE 100 giant continue to recover following the shock of President Donald Trump's tariffs on global markets. The group, which is headquartered in Derby but also has a large base in Filton, near Bristol, has seen shares rise to over 700p, resulting in a market capitalisation exceeding £60.5bn.
Before Trump's tariff announcement, Rolls-Royce's shares were trading at over 800p, but the news caused a global stock slump, pushing the company's shares down to a low of 635p before they began to bounce back.
The group's share price had previously soared after a defence summit in London in early March, where European leaders expressed their support for Ukraine and committed to increasing defence spending. This led to a surge in Rolls-Royce's share price from just over 600p to more than 800p within days.
However, the shares began to plummet in early April when Trump sparked fears of a global trade war, almost completely erasing the gains made following the defence summit – a fall that has now been half recovered.
Shares in Rolls-Royce started to rebound a few days after the initial crash, which saw the FTSE 100 group lose more than £10bn in value. In late February, the FTSE 100 engineering giant proposed a 6p per share dividend for investors, marking its first payout since before the pandemic, as reported by .
The announcement was made as the company's underlying profit surged to £2.5bn, significantly surpassing the earlier forecast of £2.1-2.3bn. Revenue also exceeded expectations, reaching £17.8bn, ahead of the predicted £17.3bn.
Rolls-Royce's shares rose despite the FTSE 100 experiencing a seven-point decline at the opening, following a substantial US market downturn on Bank Holiday Monday. In the US, stock markets took another hit, with the S&P 500 plummeting 2.38% to 5,158, the Nasdaq falling 2.5%, and the Dow Jones dropping 2.48%.
This recent market decline occurred as Trump intensified his criticism of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, labelling him "a major loser" and stating that his removal "cannot come soon enough."
