FTSE 100 Recovers From Early Weakness, Up Marginally

(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks are swinging between gains and losses in cautious trade on Friday with investors digesting the latest set of economic data, and continuing to assess the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff moves.

The benchmark FTSE 100, which dropped to 8,636.11 earlier in the session, was up 18.32 points or 0.21% at 8,684.44 a few minutes before noon.

Spirax Group and Anglo American Plc are down 2.5% and 2.4%, respectively. IAG, Barclays, Entain, IMI, Rolls-Royce Holdings and BP are declining 1.3 to 2%.

Melrose Industries, Rentokil Initial, Natwest Group, Weir Group, Diploma, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and BAE Systems are also notably lower.

Among the gainers, SSE, Severn Trent, Endeavour Mining, United Utilities and National Grid are gaining 2.2 to 2.6%.

Kingfisher, Sainsbury (J), Vodafone Group, Land Securities, Marks & Spencer, BT Group, Haleon, AstraZeneca, Croda International, Unilever, Persimmon, Segro, Centrica and Unite Group are up 1 to 2%.

On the economic front, data from the Office for National Statistics said the UK economy logged a marginal growth as initially estimated in the fourth quarter as the decline in industrial production was offset by the growth in services and construction sectors.

Gross domestic product edged up 0.1% sequentially in the fourth quarter after remaining flat in the third quarter, the data said, confirming the initial estimate.

On a yearly basis, economic growth was revised up to 1.5% from 1.4%.

The ONS upwardly revised GDP growth for the whole year of 2024 to 1.1% from 0.9%. This followed an unrevised increase of 0.4% in 2023.

Earlier this week, the Office for Budget Responsibility downgraded its growth projection for 2025 to 1% from 2%.

Meanwhile, overall retail sales logged a 1% monthly growth after rising 1.4% in January, the ONS said in a separate communiqué. Sales were forecast to fall 0.3%.

Another data showed that the UK visible trade gap widened to GBP 17.8 billion from GBP 17.4 billion in December. At the same time, the total trade deficit dropped to GBP 2.6 billion from GBP 2.8 billion in the previous month due to an increase in services surplus.