FTSE 100 Moves Higher; Miners Up Sharply

(RTTNews) - U.K. stock market's benchmark index FTSE 100 moved marginally up on Friday, supported by strong gains in the mining sector thanks to firm precious metals prices. Data showing improvement in consumer confidence and services sector activity contributed as well to market's rise.

The FTSE 100 was up 15.57 points or 0.15% at 10,783.73 a little past noon.

Miners climbed higher, contributing significantly to market's upmove. Antofagasta surged more than 6%. Endeavour Mining gained 4.5%, Anglo American Plc advanced 3.1% and Fresnillo jumped 2.5%. Glencore and Rio Tinto moved up 2% and 1.3%, respectively.

JD Sports Fashion, which plunged sharply on Thursday due to weak sales and lower earnings outlook, rebounded this morning, gaining nearly 6%.

Lion Finance, 3i Group, British Land, St. James's Place, Land Securities, Marks & Spencer, LondonMetric Property, Metlen Energy & Metals, Weir, Prudential, SSE and Next gained 1%-2.3%.

GSK shed about 2.3%. Smith & Nephew, Experian, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Melrose Industries, BAE Systems, Games Workshop Group and Bunzl lost 1%-2%.

Hunting Plc shares slumped nearly 13% after the energy services firm lowered its annual core profit forecast.

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed UK retail sales dropped unexpectedly in July on weaker non-food store sales. Retail sales decreased 0.5% month-on-month in July, reversing a revised 0.7% rise in June. Sales were forecast to drop 0.4%.

Excluding auto fuel, retail sales declined 0.9%, offsetting last month's 0.9% increase. Economists had forecast sales to fall 0.5%.

On a yearly basis, retail sales increased at a slower pace of 1.6% after rising 3.8% in June. Likewise, sales excluding auto fuel grew 2.3%, weaker than the 5% rise in the prior month.

A report from GfK group said the UK GfK Consumer Confidence Index rose to -14 in August from -17 in the previous month, marking the highest level in two years despite lingering geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

Flash estimate from S&P Global showed the S&P Global UK Composite PMI rose to 52.5 in August, firmly above market expectations that it would ease to 51.6. Services sector PMI rose to 52.8 from 52.1, while the manufacturing PMI slowed down to 51.2 from 52.9 a month earlier.