UK Stocks Turning In Mixed Performance; Miners Post Strong Gains

(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks are turning in a mixed performance Wednesday morning with investors assessing the developments on the geopolitical front, and the data showing a bigger than expected increase in UK inflation in the month of December.

The "Sell America" trade took a breather and the euro held near recent highs ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's speech at Davos. ECB President Christine Lagarde will also speak at the Summit later in the day.

Mining stocks moved higher, while bank stocks shed ground.

The benchmark FTSE 100, which edged up to 10,138.93 earlier, was down 16.33 points or 0.16% at 10,110.45 a little while ago. Burberry Group, the top gainer in the FTSE 100 index, moved up 5.1%. The stock gained as the fashion house reported that retail like-for-like sales rose 3% in its third quarter, beating market expectations.

Rio Tinto, up 5%, was not far behind. Endeavour Mining climbed 4.2%. JD Sports Fashion moved up nearly 4% after reporting mixed Christmas trading performance.

Anglo American Plc., Glencore and Diageo gained 3.4 to 3.9%. Pearson, Antofagasta, Pershing Square Holdings, Beazley and Fresnillo advanced by 2 to 2.75%. Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Mondi, Entain, Informa, Easyjet, Spirax Group and DCC also posted strong gains.

Experian declined by about 5%. after the credit data and analytics company kept its FY expectations unchanged.

Rolls-Royce Holdings, ICG, Reckit Benckiser, Lloyds Banking Group, Admiral Group, Diploma, Babcock International, LSEG, Persimmon, Natwest, Standard Chartered, Barclays and Marks & Spencer lost 1 to 2.3%.

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed the consumer price index in the UK posted an annual growth of 3.4% in December after rising 3.2% in November. Inflation was expected to climb 3.3% in December.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices gained 0.4%, reversing a 0.2% fall in November. The monthly increase matched expectations.

Another data from ONS showed input price inflation softened to 0.8% in December from 1.1% in November. At the same time, output price inflation held steady at 3.4%.

On a monthly basis, input prices dropped 0.2%, in contrast to the 0.5% increase a month ago. Output prices remained flat after November's 0.1% gain.

In a separate communiqué, the ONS said average house prices grew 2.5% on a yearly basis in November following an increase of 1.9% in October.