BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The U.K. stock market's benchmark index FTSE 100 drifted down on Thursday, weighed down by losses mining and energy sectors. Investors reacted to a slew of earnings updates in addition to following Middle East news. Easing concerns about Fed interest rates following tame U.S. inflation data helped limit market's downside.
Brent crude futures dropped to $87.25 a barrel, losing nearly 2% from previous close.
The FTSE 100 was down 28.71 points or 0.27% at 10,803.54 a little while ago.
Lion Finance gained about 2.5%. Barratt Redrow, Scottish Mortgage, Kingfisher and Whitbread moved up 2%-2.2%.
Aviva, Smith & Nephew, Computacenter, Standard Chartered, Investec, St. James's Place, Persimmon, Burberry Group, Admiral Group, Spirax Group, Diploma and British American Tobacco gained 1%-1.7%.
Costain Group shares rallied 3.5%. The infrastructure group reaffirmed annual guidance after posting strong half-year results.
Rank Group, the company behind the Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca Bingo brands, surged more than 3% after reporting a 21% increase in underlying profit for the year ended June 30, 2026. The stock pared some gains subsequently, and was up by about 1.5% a little while ago.
Antofagasta tumbled nearly 6% as the Chilean copper miner delivered mixed first-half results. The company posted a sharp rise in first-half profit but trimmed its 2026 copper output forecast.
Other mining stocks fell as well. Rio Tinto, Fresnillo and Anglo American Plc lost 4.8%, 4.3% and 3.4%, respectively. Endeavour Mining shed 3.1% and Glencore drifted down 2.7%.
Aberdeen Group, IG Group Holding, LSEG, Tritax Big Box REIT, Rentokil Initial, United Utilities and Metlen Energy & Metals also drifted notably lower.
BP and Shell lost 1.7% and 1.1%, respectively, as oil prices retreated from recent highs on expectations of weaker global demand this year.
In economic news, data from the Office for National Statistics showed U.K.'s real gross domestic product grew 0.4% from a quarter, following first quarter's 0.6% expansion. But the pace of growth matched expectations.
On the production side of GDP, services growth weakened to 0.5% from 0.8%. Construction output climbed 0.3%.
At the same time, industrial production showed no growth after a 0.2% rise. Within production, there was an increase of 1% in manufacturing and a 0.2% gain in mining and quarrying.
On a yearly basis, GDP advanced 1.2% in the second quarter compared to economists' forecast of 1.1% expansion.
Further, data showed that GDP posted a monthly growth of 0.3% in June after showing no growth in May.
In a separate communiqué, the ONS said the visible trade deficit widened to GBP 23.01 billion in June from GBP 21.08 billion in May. The shortfall was seen at GBP 20.6 billion.
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