Sage Group PLC

US tech stocks fell sharply on Monday after Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called for tech companies to reduce the speed of AI development, a call backed by OpenAI boss Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Google DeepMind chairman Sir Demis Hassabis. The Nasdaq Composite dropped as much as 1.3pc to 25,992.54, with Sandisk, Intel and Micron all falling more than 6pc and Nvidia, the world's largest company by market value, down 3.8pc; the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 0.4pc to 52,385.52 and the S&P 500 declined 0.8pc to 7,597.05. Donald Trump rejected the calls, writing on Truth Social that there is a "SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers," while Vice-President JD Vance called the industry's requests for regulation "a Trojan horse." In Europe, the Cac 40 in France, the Dax in Germany and the Ibex 35 in Spain each fell 0.6pc, with Germany's Infineon down 7.2pc and Dutch companies ASML and ASMI losing 4.8pc and 8.1pc respectively, while the FTSE 100 rose 0.6pc as software stocks including Sage, Relx and London Stock Exchange Group gained. OpenAI separately called on the UK Government to introduce mandatory safety rules for major AI developers, with the AI Security Institute playing a central role in third-party testing, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called for a global "technology stability board" modelled on the Financial Stability Board.

The FTSE 100 set a new intraday record of 10,951.06 before closing up 0.3% at 10,908.41 on Wednesday, buoyed by strong earnings and rising oil prices. BP and Shell gained 3.4% and 2.8% respectively as Brent crude surged back above 90 dollars a barrel after President Trump vowed retaliation for an Iranian attack on US bases in Jordan. Among blue-chip stocks, Weir Group jumped 8.7% on robust first-half results, Sage Group rose 8.8% after an upbeat trading update, and Reckitt Benckiser added 4.3% as it announced a share buyback and reported second-quarter like-for-like sales growth of 4.7%, beating consensus. Standard Chartered climbed 2.9% after a record first-half performance and a 1 billion dollar buyback, while on the FTSE 250, Greggs soared 18% on half-year profit and sales that exceeded expectations. Attention now turns to the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision, with markets pricing a 34% chance of a hike amid limited forward guidance from new Fed chair Kevin Warsh.

Sage Group posted an 11% rise in revenue for the first half of fiscal 2026, driven by strong demand from both existing and new customers. Operating margin expanded 80 basis points to 23.9%, while earnings per share climbed 16% to 23.7 pence. Annual recurring revenue grew 11% year-on-year, adding roughly 275 million pounds to reach 2.7 billion pounds. Operating profit increased 15% to 326 million dollars, and profit after tax rose 10% to 224 million dollars. The company declared an interim dividend of 8.05 pence per share, up 8%, and highlighted that its Sage Business Cloud revenue grew 15%, with cloud native revenue up 25%. North America revenue accelerated to 14% growth, including 15% growth in the US. Free cash flow came in at 241 million dollars net of interest and tax, and the leverage ratio stood at around two times, at the upper end of the target range. Management noted that AI-powered features are now available to over 500,000 customers, though the direct revenue contribution from AI remains modest.