FTSE 100 Up Firmly In Positive Territory

(RTTNews) - UK stocks are up in positive territory on Tuesday, lifted by optimism about exemptions on auto tariffs by the U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he is considering temporarily exempting the levies on auto and auto components imports.

Shares from automobile and retail sectors are among the notable gainers in the market, where the mood is positive for the second straight day.

The benchmark FTSE 100, which climbed to 8,244.44 earlier in the session, is up 69.04 points or 0.85% at 8,203.38 a few minutes past noon.

3i Group shares are up 4.3%. Fresnillo is rising 3.5%. BAE Systems, Segro, St. James's Place, Intermediate Capital Group, Halma, Taylor Wimpey, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Standard Chartered, Aviva, M&G, Unite Group, Kingfisher and Diplma are gaining 2 to 3%.

B&M European Value Retail is up nearly 2%. The discount retailer delivered strong revenue growth and robust trading performance for the 52-week financial reporting period to 29 March 2025.

GSK, IMI, Relx, Schroders, Persimmon, Endeavour Mining, DCC, Anglo American Plc, Experian, Howden Joinery and United Utilities are also notably higher.

Diageo is declining 2.5%. Scottish Mortgage, AstraZeneca Pharma, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Glencore are moderately lower.

On the economic front, the UK jobless rate remained unchanged in the three months to February, the Office for National Statistics said in its report.

The unemployment rate was 4.4% in the December to February period, unchanged from the preceding period and matched economists' expectations.

Meanwhile, annual growth in employees' earnings excluding bonuses was 5.9% in December to February. This was slightly slower than the expected growth of 6%.

UK retail sales increased in March as improving weather boosted house and garden related purchases, the British Retail Consortium reported today. Retail sales grew 1.1% on a yearly basis in March. However, this was slower than the 3.5% growth in the same period last year.