FTSE 100 Recovers From Early Lows, Down Just Marginally

(RTTNews) - The U.K. stock market's benchmark index FTSE 100 fell to a near 4-month low on Thursday, weighed down by concerns about rising oil prices and bond yields amid an escalation in Middle East tensions. Miners and banks stocks were among the major losers.

However, the index regained most of the lost ground with several frontline stocks finding support at lower levels past noon.

Oil prices rose sharply amid rising concerns over an escalation in U.S.-Iran conflict. According to reports, the White House asked Pentagon to develop options to strike Iran before the midterm elections, but no final decision has been made. Meanwhile, oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico have begun curbing production and evacuating personnel from offshore facilities.

Brent crude front-month futures jumped to $104.70 a barrel, gaining about 4.5%.

The FTSE 100, which fell to 10,364.50, recovered well as the day progressed and was down 14.11 points or 0.13% at 10,444.39 about an hour past noon.

Standard Life dropped about 4.5% after Aberdeen Group announced plans to reduce its stake in insurer Standard Life to 5.2% from the current 10.3%. Aberdeen Group shares gained about 1%.

Melrose Industries drifted down 3.5%, while IAG, Metlen Energy & Metals, Lion Finance, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Standard Chartered, Endeavour Mining, Barratt Redrow, Kingfisher, HSBC Holdings, Antofagasta, Barclays, Balfour Beatty, Vodafone Group and Lloyds Banking Group fell 2%-3.1%.

Land Securities, Smith & Nephew, GSK, Fresnillo, Weir, British Land, Natwest Group, Investec, Howden Joinery Group, 3i Group, Smiths Group, Tritax Big Box REIT, M&G, Croda International, International Hotels Group, Anglo American Plc, Rio Tinto and AstraZeneca also drifted notably lower.

Tesco climbed 5.8% The supermarket group issued slightly improved profit outlook and increased the size of its share buyback program. BP, Shell and Ithaca Energy gained 3.7%, 2.5% and 1.5%, respectively, thanks to higher oil prices.

Imperial Brands surged 4.1% following the tobacco maker reaffirming its FY26 guidance and announced plans to buy back 1.5 billion pounds in shares in fiscal 2027.

Pearson, Sainsbury (J), IG Group Holdings, Pearson, Relx, Bunzl, Computacenter, Informa, British American Tobacco, The Sage Group, Autotrader Group and Centrica and Aberdeen Group also moved notably higher.

In economic news, UK permanent job placements increased for the second straight month in September, while permanent pay growth slowed for the first time in four months, a report compiled by S&P Global showed.

There was a back-to-back increase in permanent placements in September with the rate of growth hitting the strongest in four years, the KPMG/REC Report on Jobs said.

The improvement reflects rising activity levels at employers and efforts to expand capacity amid improved business confidence. Temp billings also increased in September but the increase was the least pronounced in five months.