FTSE 100 Down Marginally; Page Group Soars On Higher Earnings

(RTTNews) - The UK stock market was down slightly a little past noon on Monday as investors made cautious moves amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

Oil prices jumped 2% amid concerns over potential supply disruptions after the U.S. launched fresh strikes against Iran.

The U.S. military launched another round of strikes against Iran overnight and early Monday "to degrade their ability to attack commercial ships freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz," after an Iranian strike on a container ship in the critical waterway the day before.

Iran responded to these strikes by attacking Gulf Arab states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman, further straining a fragile ceasefire between the two countries.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 10.55 points or 0.1% at 10,486.74 a few minutes past noon.

Vodafone Group moved up nearly 4.5%. Persimmon, BT Group, Computacenter, BP, JD Sports Fashion and Airtel Africa gained 2%-3%.

Pearson, Entain, Barratt Redrow, The Sage Group, Kingfisher, Severn Trent, Sainsbury (J), Metlen Energy & Metals, Burberry Group and Shell climbed 1%-1.85%.

PageGroup soared 11.7%. The British recruiter posted second-quarter gross profit above market expectations.

Grafton Group, the owner of Woodie's, added nearly 2% after reporting first-half trading growth and maintaining full-year adjusted operating profit guidance.

Developer Derwent London gained 1% after signing a £100 million unsecured revolving credit facility with Handelsbanken Plc.

IG Group Holdings dropped nearly 3%. Pola Capital Technology Trust, IAG, AstraZeneca, Scottish Mortgage, St. James's Place and Standard Chartered drifted down 1.5%-2%.

Fresnillo, Endeavour Mining, British American Tobacco, Rentokil Initial and Rolls-Royce Holdings also dropped notably lower.