FTSE 100 Retreats After Positive Start

(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks opened on a positive note Friday morning after data showed an unexpected increase in UK retail sales in September. However, the market turned a bit easy subsequently, due largely to selling in some mining stocks as metal prices dropped from record highs.

The FTSE 100 index, which advanced to 9,601.37 early on in the session, was down 8.52 points or 0.09% at 9,570.05 a few minutes past noon.

London Stock Exchange, which closed sharply higher on Thursday, continues to move higher, gaining about 3.6%.

Natwest Group is up nearly 3%, and Burberry Group is gaining 2.3%. Relx, Tesco, Kingfisher, Compass Group, Next, Scottish Mortgage, Diploma, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Pearson are up 1 to 1.8%.

Fresnillo is down nearly 3%. Metlen Energy & Metals is declining by 2.6%. LondonMetric Property, Airtel Africa, Endeavour Mining, BAE Systems, SSE, WPP, GSK, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Barclays, Glencore, Whitbread, Ashtead Group and Coca-Cola EuroPacific Partners are down 1 to 2%.

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed UK retail sales advanced 0.5% in September from the previous month, confounding expectations for a decline of 0.2%. Sales had climbed 0.6% in August. The increase marked the fourth consecutive rise and took the total volume to the highest level since July 2022.

On a yearly basis, retail sales volume grew at a faster pace of 1.5% after rising 0.7% in August. The rate was also better than forecast of 0.6%.

Elsewhere, survey results from market research group GfK showed that the British consumer sentiment improved moderately in October.

The consumer confidence index rose to -17 from -19 in September. Four measures were up and one was down from the previous month.

Data from S&P Global showed the S&P Global UK Composite PMI rose to 51.1 in October from the four-month low of 50.1 in the previous month, above the consensus of a 50.6. Activity in the services sector rose services sector grew with the index climbing to 51.1 in the month from 50.8 in September. The Manufacturing PMI rose to 49.6 from 46.2.