BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks are firmly placed in positive territory a little past noon on Thursday amid optimism about U.S. and Iran agreeing on a peace deal later this week.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview on Wednesday that the Middle East conflict was 'very close to over,' fueling market optimism that peace talks could resume, and a resolution be found.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 71.35 points or 0.67% at 10,630.93 a little while ago.
Intertek Group soared more than 11% after Swedish private equity firm EQT confirmed it had made a takeover proposal to the inspection, product testing and certification company that was rejected.
In a brief statement responding to recent press speculation, the company said: 'EQT confirms that, on 10 April 2026, it submitted an indicative proposal to Intertek regarding a possible cash offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Intertek. The possible offer was rejected by Intertek on 13 April 2026 and EQT is considering its options.'
Entain gained about 8%. The sports betting and gambling company reported net gaming revenue growth of 3% for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, helped by the continued momentum and a strong volume growth of 8%.
Metlen Energy & Metals rallied 4.5%. Halma moved up 4%, while JD Sports Fashion, Standard Life, LondonMetric Property, The Sage Group, Howden Joinery Group, Persimmon, British Land, Tritax Big Box REIT, Segro, RightMove, Experian, Pershing Square Holdings and ICG gained 2%-3%.
Tesco gained 2.5% after reporting solid sales and profit growth and announcing a £500 million buyback. The company reported preliminary fiscal year profit before tax, on a 53-week basis, from continuing operations basis, of 2.40 billion pounds compared to 2.21 billion pounds, up 8.5% from last year.
Antofagasta shed about 2.1%. Airtel Africa, Vodafone Group and Convatec Group lost 1%-2%.
In economic news, data from the Office for National Statistics showed UK's gross domestic product logged a monthly growth of 0.5% in February, outpacing the 0.1% expansion in January. Economists had forecast the growth to remain unchanged at 0.1%. Compared to the same period last year, GDP advanced 1% in February.
On the production-side, the dominant service sector expanded 0.5% and construction output advanced 1% in February.
Industrial production grew 0.5%, following successive falls of 0.1% in January and a 0.4% drop in December. Meanwhile, manufacturing output edged down 0.1%, reversing January's 0.2% increase.
On a yearly basis, industrial production slid 0.4% and manufacturing dropped 0.5% in February.
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