FTSE 100 Moderately Lower At Noon As Investors React To Earnings, GDP Data

(RTTNews) - U.K.'s benchmark FTSE 100 is down in negative territory around noon on Thursday with investors digesting a slew of earnings updates, and data showing a marginal increase in the nation's economic growth in the third quarter.

The FTSE 100 was down 60.91 points or 0.61% at 9,850.51 a few minutes past noon.

Endeavour Mining Plc shares are up nearly 10% on strong third-quarter performance thanks to high gold prices, firm output and higher cash generation. .

Convatec Group is gaining more than 7%. Fresnillo is up 4.35%, Spirax Group is advancing 3.4% and Persimmon is rising 2.5%.

Burberry Group is gaining nearly 3% after the company said that its first half loss before tax narrowed to 48 million pounds from a loss of 80 million pounds a year ago.

Metlen Energy & Metals, IAG, Hiscox, Experian, Standard Chartered and Babcock International are also notably higher.

Despite a sharp surge in first-half earnings, 3I Group shares are plunging 14.5% after the company warned of a challenging environment ahead and of soft recent trading at the discount retailer that makes up most of its portfolio.

The company's first-half profit climbed to £3.287 billion, up from £2.048 billion last year. Earnings per share rose to 339.8 pence, compared with 211.6 pence a year earlier.

Aviva is down 4.7% and WPP is down nearly 4%. Vodafone Group, Barratt Redrow, SSE, BP, Admiral Group, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, GSK and British American Tobacco are also notably lower.

In economic news, the UK economy expanded marginally in the third quarter, the Office for National Statistics said in its report.

Gross domestic product grew 0.1% sequentially, following the prior quarter's 0.3% expansion. This was also slower than forecast of 0.2%. On a yearly basis, the economy logged a growth of 1.3% in the third quarter, as expected.

Month-on-month, GDP fell 0.1% following no growth in August and a 0.1% fall in July.

Another report from the ONS showed that the visible trade deficit narrowed to GBP 18.89 billion from GBP 19.53 billion in August. The total trade gap was GBP 1.09 billion compared to a GBP 1.27 billion shortfall in the prior month.