FTSE 100 Up 0.6% At Noon; Miners, Bank Stocks Move Higher

(RTTNews) - Despite data showing an acceleration in the nation's consumer price inflation in the month of August, U.K. stocks gained notable ground in positive territory on Wednesday thanks to strong buying in mining and bank stocks.

Easing oil prices and lower global bond yields helped lift sentiment even as worries about Middle East tensions lingered. Investors awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement due later in the day, and the Bank of England's rate decision on Thursday.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 60.34 points or 0.57% at 10,718.47 slightly before noon.

Barratt Redrow soared nearly 10% on reporting higher profit for fiscal 2026, mainly helped by revenue growth. Profit before tax from continuing operations rose to £363.5 million from £273.7 million a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, adjusted pre-tax profit rose to £525 million from £521.9 million a year ago.

Operating profit increased to £444.3 million from £285.5 million last year. Adjusted operating profit grew to £550.3 million from £500.1 million.

Miners Fresnillo, Antofagasta and Endeavour Mining gained 4.2%, 3.6% and 3%, respectively. Anglo American Plc advanced nearly 2% and Rio Tinto moved up 1.5%.

Bank stocks Barclays, Standard Chartered, Natwest Group and Lloyds Banking Group gained 1.8%-2%.

Persimmon climbed 4.3%. Babcock International gained about 2.7%. Tritax Big Box REIT, Howden Joinery Group, SSE, Computacenter, Kingfisher, Halma and Weir also posted strong gains.

Among the losers, Marks & Spencer dropped nearly 4%. JD Sports Fashion, Sainsbury (J), Convatec Group,Tesco, Relx, Metlen Energy & Metals, St. James's Place, Rentokil Initial and Informa lost 1%-2.2%.

UK consumer price inflation rose to a five-month high in August largely due to higher motor fuel prices, the Office for National Statistics said.

Inflation advanced to 3.1% from 2.9% in July. The rate came in line with expectations. Meanwhile, core inflation that excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco remained unchanged at 2.6% in August.

Another report from the statistical office showed increases in input and output price inflation. Input price inflation rose to 6.1% from 5.8% in the previous month. At the same time, annual growth in output prices climbed to 3.7% from 3.3%.

On a monthly basis, input prices rebounded 0.3% after a 0.8% fall and output prices moved up 0.7%, following July's 0.4% increase.