U.K. Stocks Turning In Mixed Performance; FTSE 100 Up Marginally

(RTTNews) - U.K.'s equity benchmark FTSE 100 was up in positive territory a little past noon on Tuesday with stocks turning in a mixed performance as investors assessed the Middle East situation and looked ahead to U.S. President Donald Trump's speech at the U.N. General Assembly later in the day.

The FTSE 100, which dropped to 10,713.36 earlier, was up 4.93 points or 0.05% at 10,743.94 a little while ago.

Kingfisher soared nearly 10%. The home improvement retailer reported strong first-half results and raised its full-year profit guidance.

Smiths Group surged 6.5%. JD Sports Fashion, Coca-Cola HBC, St. James's Place, Antofagasta, Anglo American Plc, IAG, Informa and Howden Joinery Group gained 2.3%-4%.

Diploma, Metlen Energy & Metals, Games Workshop, Spirax Group, Weir Group, Marks & Spencer, Compass Group, Aberdeen Group, Bunz, Intercontinental Hotels Group, IMI, Diageo, ICG, Polar Capital Technology Trust, Reckitt Benckiser, AutoTrader Group and Unilever also posted strong gains.

BT Group, BP, Airtel Africa, Admiral Group, Land Securities Group, British Land, BAE Systems, Ithaca Energy, Hiscox and Aviva shed 1%-2.5%.

In economic news, the UK budget deficit exceeded the government estimate in August, data from the Office for Budget Responsibility said.

Public sector net borrowing increased GBP 2.9 billion from the previous year to GBP 18.3 billion in August. This was the second-highest borrowing for August on record and also GBP 3.5 billion above the estimate of the Office for Budget Responsibility.

In the financial year to August, borrowing decreased GBP 2.2 billion to GBP 77.3 billion. However, this was GBP 8.1 billion above the OBR forecast.

At the end of August, public sector net debt was equivalent to 93.8% of GDP, was 1.3 percentage points lower than a year earlier.