London, Jan 8, 2026, 08:41 GMT — Regular session
- Rolls-Royce shares rose about 2% in early London trade, tracking a broader bid for defence-linked names.
- The company disclosed another day of purchases under its interim buyback, with full-year results the next big date.
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.L) shares rose 1.95% to 1,283.5 pence in early trade on Thursday, after the company disclosed another round of share repurchases under its £200 million interim buyback. The stock traded between 1,268.0 and 1,283.5 pence and was last up 24.5 pence versus Wednesday’s 1,259.0 pence close. 1
The move landed as European aerospace and defence stocks hit fresh highs after U.S. President Donald Trump called for higher U.S. defence spending. A regional aerospace and defence index was up about 2% around 0816 GMT, with Britain’s BAE Systems and Chemring among the leaders, Reuters reported. 2
Rolls-Royce said it bought back 434,889 shares on Jan. 7 through UBS, and intends to cancel the stock, cutting the share count. The company’s interim programme is set to run from Jan. 2 and complete no later than Feb. 24, ahead of the full-year numbers, with the size of any further 2026 buybacks subject to board review. 3
Investors now have a single date circled: Feb. 26, when Rolls-Royce is due to publish its 2025 full-year results. The focus will be on cash generation and any guidance on capital returns beyond the interim buyback, as well as demand signals across civil aerospace and defence. 4
On the chart, the market is staring at the round 1,300-pence area after Thursday’s early push. The first support sits near the session low around 1,268 pence, then Wednesday’s close at 1,259 pence.
Rolls-Royce has become a heavy “UK industrial” momentum trade again, helped by its mix of civil aerospace services and defence work. That mix can also make the shares quick to react to headlines — geopolitics on one side, airline demand on the other.
“Any stumble in operational delivery or shifts in end-market dynamics could prompt profit-taking,” Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, wrote this week, flagging how little room the shares now have for bad news. 5
