BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The UK stock market shed ground on Friday as weak retail sales and consumer confidence data and worries about inflation amid elevated oil prices due to persisting tensions in the Middle East rendered the mood cautious.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 52.73 points or 0.5% at 10,672.32 about an hour past noon.
Rolls-Royce Holdings fell 6.5% on reports the company neared a deal for up to £200 million in UK government subsidies to develop a new short-haul aircraft engine.
Computacenter shed nearly 4%. Burberry Group, Melrose Industries, Games Workshop, Diploma, Metlen Energy & Metals and Aritel Africa lost 2%-3%.
IAG, Standard Chartered, Vodafone Group, AstraZeneca, IG Group Holdings, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Hiscox, Barclays, SSE, Admiral Group and Aviva also posted notable losses.
Energy stocks Ithaca, BP and Shell moved up 2.8%, 2.5% and 2.1%, respectively, riding on higher oil prices.
Weir, Anglo American Plc, Smith & Nephew, Barratt Redrow, Antofagasta, Autotrader Group, Associated British Foods, Howden Joinery Group and Compass Group gained 1%-1.8%.
In economic news, UK retail sales declined more than expected in September as warm weather weighed on clothing and supermarket sales, data released by the Office for National Statistics showed. Retail sales decreased 0.4% in September, reversing a rise of 0.7% in August and exceeded economists' forecast of a 0.1% fall.
Excluding auto fuel, retail sales declined 0.7%, in contrast to the 0.9% increase in August. Economist had forecast a marginal 0.1% fall for September. Food and non-food stores sales decreased 0.4% each, while automotive fuel sales increased 2.2%.
On a yearly basis, retail sales growth eased to 0.8% from 2.7% in August. This was also slower than forecast of 1%.
Retail sales excluding auto fuel also advanced 0.8%, weaker than the 2.9% increase in the previous month. Economists had forecast sales to grow 1.5%.
Elsewhere, survey data from the market research group GfK showed that consumer confidence registered its sharpest fall in October since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020. The consumer sentiment index declined 11 points to -24 in October.
Survey results from S&P Global showed the UK private sector continued to expand in October, with the flash Composite PMI Output Index rising to 53.1 from 52 in September, exceeding market expectations of 51.8 and reaching an eight-month high. The S&P Global UK Manufacturing PMI rose to 52.8 in October 2026, up from 51.9 in September and above market expectations of 51.7, according to the preliminary estimate.
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