Top FTSE 100 shares to watch: Barclays, Scottish Mortgage, Rolls-Royce

The FTSE 100 Index has moved sideways since July this year as investors have waited for a major catalyst. It was trading at 10,830 points on Monday, a few points above the August low of 10,686. This article looks at some of the top FTSE Index shares to watch this week.

Barclays to benefit from the Anthropic IPO

Barclays share price has wavered in the past few months. It was trading at 496p on Monday, up by nearly 40% from its lowest level this year. 

Barclays’ business is doing well, driven by the higher interest rates in the UK and the the robust nature of the investment banking industry. Dealogic data shows that Barclays has is the biggest European bank in equity capital market bookrunning this year. It has advised on deals worth over $28.3 billion, double what it did last year

Barclays is also a big bank in the debt capital markets (DCM) industry, where it has participated in deals worth over $310 billion.

A recent report by FT said that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs will have the leading roles in the upcoming Anthropic IPO. Barclays will be one of the other banks in the list and is expected to make millions of dollars. For example, Barclays reportedly made about $10 million in the last SpaceX IPO. As such, the figure this time will likely be higher since Anthropic will have a bigger valuation.

In addition to Anthropic, Barclays will likely participate in other big IPOs, including OpenAI, which will value it at over $1 trillion. The most recent results showed that its investment bank division made over 7.9 billion pounds in the half-year. 

Scottish Mortgage Trust (SMT)

Scottish Mortgage Trust is another top FTSE 100 player to watch this week because of its investment in Anthropic. According to its website, Anthropic accounts for just 2.8% of its portfolio. This figure comes from the last known figure of Anthropic’s valuation, which stood at about $900 billion. 

Therefore, the figure has likely soared now that the company’s valuation is expected to hit $2 trillion in its IPO. Scottish Mortgage shares is expected to gain momentum as the IPO nears. 

At the same time, its other portfolio companies are doing relatively well. SpaceX has rebounded by 41% from its lowest level this year, while other top companies like TSMC, Nvidia, and MercadoLibre have soared by double digits from their recent lows.

Rolls-Royce Holdings has formed a bullish flag pattern

Rolls-Royce, a top UK industrial giant, will be in the spotlight this week because of its technicals. As we wrote here, the stock is in the process of forming a bullish flag pattern, which is made up of a vertical line and a descending channel. In most cases, this pattern normally leads to a strong breakout over time.

The company has some notable fundamentals, including its strong revenue and profitability growth. It is also working to diversify its business by launching a narrow-body engine that may come online as soon as 2030. 

The main risk, however, is that its small modular reactor (SMR) business will likely take longer before becoming profitable.