FTSE 100 Shed 0.6% As Resources, Bank Stocks Fall
(RTTNews) - U.K. stock market's benchmark FTSE 100 drifted lower Wednesday morning, weighed down by losses in energy and mining stocks due to a drop in commodity prices. Pharmaceuticals and bank stocks also declined sharply.
The FTSE 100 was down 58.60 points or 0.58% at 10,064.13 a few minutes before noon.
Mining stocks fell after prices of precious metals dropped on profit taking after recent gains. Antofagasta and Fresnillo slid 4.6% and 4.3%, respectively. Anglo American Plc lost 2.7% and Endeavour Mining dropped by about 1.6%. Rio Tinto shed nearly 1%.
Energy stocks Shell and BP drifted down by 4% and 3.5%, respectively, as oil prices slipped after the U.S. and Venezuela reached an agreement allowing the export of up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude oil to U.S. ports.
Among the gainers, Barratt Redrow moved up 3%, Persimmon advanced 2.75%, Kingfisher climbed 2.5% and Vodafone Group rallied 2.4%.
British Land, LondonMetric Property, Relx, Land Securities, Segro, Mondi, Sainsbury (J), IMI, Berkeley Group Holdings and Airtel Africa also posted strong gains.
Natwest Group and Intercontinental Hotels Group lost 3.6% and 3.3%, respectively. Burberry Group, EasyJet, Diageo, Standard Chartered, Prudential, Entain, Barclays Group, Hikma Pharmaceuticals and GSK also declined sharply.
On the economic front, the S&P Global UK Construction PMI rose to 40.1 in December of 2025 from the over-five-year low of 39.4 in the previous month.
Civil engineering activity the reading for the month came in at 32.9, following a score of 30.0 in November. Both housing activity (33.5 vs 35.4) and commercial construction (42 vs 43.8) dropped the most since May 2020.
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