BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The U.K. stock market is up in positive territory Friday afternoon, supported by gains in banking and mining sectors. The benchmark FTSE 100 is well set to end the week with a gain of about 2%.
In economic news, U.K. service sector growth eased to a five-month low as weak consumer confidence, delays to business spending decisions and falling exports all weighed on demand.
The FTSE 100 was up 50.58 points or 0.54% at 9,478.31 about an hour past noon.
Bunzi, up 3.7%, tops the list of gainers in the FTSE 100 index. Schroders, Natwest Group, Fresnillo, Melrose Industries, Standard Chartered Bank, Rentokil Initial, HSBC Holding, Endeavour Mining, Land Securities, Marks & Spencer and Anglo American Plc are up 1.5 to 3.4%.
Among the losers, Admiral Group, BT Group, Experian, The Sage Group, Games Worshop, GSK and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners are down 0.7 to 1.4%.
The S&P Global UK Composite PMI fell sharply to 50.1 in September 2025 from a preliminary reading of 51 and 53.5 in August, its weakest reading in five months and indicating stagnant private sector activity.
The S&P Global UK Services PMI fell to 50.8 in September, from a more than one-year high of 54.2 in the previous month, revised down from the preliminary estimate of 51.9. This marked the weakest pace of expansion since April, as subdued economic conditions and heightened market uncertainty weighed on output growth.
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