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.
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.
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.
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.
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. IG
