FTSE 100 Up 0.72% As Miners Surge

(RTTNews) - The UK stock market remained firmly up in positive territory a little past noon on Friday, led by gains in the mining sector. The mood was somewhat cautious amid a bit of uncertainty about Iran and the U.S. reaching a lasting agreement to end their conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Investors also looked ahead to the monthly jobs data from the U.S., for clues about the Federal Reserve's interest rate moves in upcoming monetary policy meetings.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 78.25 points or 0.72% at 10,946.14 nearly half an hour past noon.

Miners Fresnillo and Endeavour Mining jumped 5.7% and 2.5%, respectively. Anglo American Plc climbed 1.1%

Diageo moved up 4%. Prudential climbed 3.3% and LSEG advanced 3.2%. Convatec Group, Admiral Group, Spirax Group, JD Sports Fashion, Hiscox, Autotrader Group, Smiths Group, British American Tobacco, Legal & General, BAE Systems, Coca-Cola HBC and Standard Chartered gained 1.5%-2.3%.

Bunzl, GSK, Experian, AstraZeneca, HSBC Holdings, The Sage Group, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Imperial Brands, Standard Life, Lloyds Banking Group, Melrose Industries and Lion Finance also posted strong gains.

Metlen Energy & Metals shed 2.2%. Persimmon, BT Group, Computacenter, Airtel Africa, Rentokil Initial, Glencore, 3i Group, Whitbread and Shell lost 0.5%-1%.

In economic news, UK house prices stalled in July amid a more uncertain economic backdrop this year, data published by Lloyds Banking Group showed.

House prices posted a flat growth in July, following a 0.2% rise in June. Prices were expected to climb again by 0.2%.

On a yearly basis, house prices edged up 0.1%, slower than the 0.7% rise in June. This was the slowest annual growth since November 2023.

Lloyds Head of Mortgages Amanda Bryden said she expects market activity and house prices to remain relatively stable over the remainder of the year. "Developments will be shaped by both how mortgage rates respond to the outlook for inflation and wider household confidence," she added.