FTSE 100 Up Marginally; Miners, Bank Stocks Climb Higher

(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks recovered after a slightly weak start on Tuesday thanks largely to some strong buying in mining and banking sectors. Investors reacted to the nation's employment data and Prime Minister Andy Burnham's pledge cut household energy bills by scrapping the Digital ID Programme.

The benchmark FTSE 100, which climbed to 10,566.49 from a low of 10,481.30, was up 19.09 points or 0.18% at 10,543.85 a few minutes past noon.

Miners moved notably higher, contributing significantly to market's upmove. Antofagasta climbed nearly 4%. Endeavour Mining, Glencore and Fresnillo gained 2.7%-3%. Anglo American Plc advanced 2% and Rio Tinto moved up 1.3%.

Bank stocks Standard Chartered, HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays gained 1%-2%.

Babcock International surged 5.7%. Marks & Spencer gained 3.7% and BAE Systems jumped 2.5%. Burberry Group, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Polar Capital Technology Trust, Lion Finance Group, Smiths Group, M&G, Halma, Whitbread, Prudential, Persimmon and Melrose Industries gained 1%-2.2%.

Shares of construction and infrastructure firm Kier Group climbed nearly 5% after the company said it expects FY26 revenue and profit at the top end of market expectations.

Among the losers, Compass Group declined 2.7% despite reporting strong quarterly revenue growth.

Segro dropped 3.7%, Experian and ICG drifted lower by 2.8% and 2.6%, respectively, while AutoTrader Group, Relx, Convatec Group, Admiral Group, Howden Joinery Group, The Sage Group, LSEG, BT Group and Tesco lost 1%-2%.

Shares of recruiter Sthree dropped by about 3% after the company's half-year profit slumped 75% due to weak hiring in Germany and the Netherlands.

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed the UK unemployment rate held steady in the three months to May at 4.9%, the same as in the February to April period. The rate was expected to rise to 5%.

In the corresponding period last year, the rate was 4.7%.

Data also showed that the annual growth in employees' average earnings, excluding bonuses, remained stable at 3.4% in the March to May period. Including bonuses, the earnings growth eased slightly to 4.3% from 4.4%.