London midday: FTSE gains amid Middle East peace hopes

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were still higher by midday on Tuesday amid hopes the US-Iran conflict could be nearing an end.

The FTSE 100 was 0.5% firmer at 10,834.13, faring well but underperforming European peers due to its minimal exposure to the tech sector, which was bouncing back from recent losses.

Meanwhile, Brent crude was down 1.7% at $90.98 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was off 1.4% at $85.67. Sentiment was boosted after Donald Trump said overnight that the war with Iran was "effectively over".

Speaking to reporters at the White House, he said: "We're just keeping it the status quo.

"And we're doing that really at the behest of countries that are their neighbours."

He added: "At this point, taking the military action doesn't seem to be a very necessary thing - but we're locked and loaded, ready to go for any reason."

In a post on Truth Social, the US president said he had had an "excellent" talk with the Qatari Prime Minister and highlighted "positive momentum toward an end to this conflict".

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "It's quite remarkable to think investors were showing signs of panic less than a week ago, and now markets are merrily pushing higher as if there's nothing to worry about.

"US tech stocks bounced back sharply on Monday, and European and Asian markets were all solid on Tuesday in response. A further pullback in oil prices certainly helped to lift the market mood, with Brent crude trading 1.8% lower at $90.92 per barrel.

"Markets are increasingly taking the view that Donald Trump needs to forge a new path if he wants to save face from the midterm election washout, and that might mean finding a way to end the Iran war. In doing so, he would, in theory, help bring down energy costs which would bring relief to consumers and businesses.

"Nvidia's shares traded 1% higher in pre-market trading despite Trump saying the FBI is looking into CEO Jensen Huang's involvement with an alleged Chinese spy. Certain investors might have taken the view that whatever happens to Jensen Huang, the company will continue to dominate the AI chip space."

On home shores, figures from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG showed that retail sales growth remained sluggish in October as consumers held back spending ahead of Black Friday and Christmas amid mounting pressure on household budgets.

Total retail sales increased by 1.5% year on year over the four weeks to 31 October, slightly below the 1.6% growth recorded in the same period last year, but ahead of the three-month average of 1.2%.

Investors were also mulling the latest data from Worldpanel by Numerator, which showed that grocery price inflation continued to edge upwards in October as retail's critical golden quarter got underway.

Like-for-like grocery price inflation was 2.6% in the four weeks to 1 November, up from 2.5% in September and 2.3% a month prior to that.

Prices rose fastest in household lifestyle products, such as batteries, fresh fish and skin cleansing. The fastest falls were seen in butters and spreads, cheese, and chilled smoothies and juices.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel, said: "Grocery price inflation continued to increase after slowing over the summer. While prices are rising at a slower rate than at the beginning of the year, the direction of travel has changed. Household budgets have already taken a hit after the latest increase to the energy price cap arrived with the cold weather in October, and shoppers will be keeping a close eye on prices at the till this winter."

Looking to the rest of the day, attention will turn to US consumer price inflation for October at 1330 GMT. Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, said: "With markets increasingly seeing a rate hike by the Fed next month as a done deal, it's going to take quite a big surprise either side to move the needle though. Markets currently see a roughly 82% chance the Fed raises rates at its 9 December meeting.

"For today, headline CPI is seen slowing to 0.3% month on month from 0.6%, with core inflation easing to 0.2% from 0.3%. The Cleveland Fed's Nowcasting model indicates the monthly increase on the headline rate as low as 0.2% rounded. A number of Fed speakers are due to speak after the release so could give some colour on what the data suggests for near-term monetary policy thinking."

In equity markets, shares in Marks & Spencer sparked after the high street giant pledged to double the dividend and reiterated plans to ramp up food and clothing sales.

On the downside, Shell and BP gushed lower as oil prices fell, while Avon Technologies slid despite posting a rise in full-year profit and revenue.

Shares of Vodafone dipped as the telecoms giant upped full-year guidance despite a slide into the red and ongoing weakness in Germany. It now expects adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and lease-related expenses to come in between �13.2bn and �13.4bn, and adjusted free cash flow of �2.8bn and �3bn. It had previously forecast for EBITDAaL of between �13bn and �13.3bn, and cash flow in the range of �2.6bn to �2.9bn.

Playtech reversed earlier gains despite saying that full-year profit was set to be ahead of analysts' expectations following better-than-expected trading from July to the end of October, driven by a continued strong performance in the Americas.

Watches of Switzerland also turned lower, despite hailing a strong first-half performance, with group revenue up 15%, and narrowing its FY27 guidance towards the upper end of the company's range.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,834.13 0.48%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 24,878.05 0.70%

techMARK (TASX) 6,224.23 0.52%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Lion Finance Group (BGEO) 13,750.00p 3.69%

Prudential (PRU) 983.20p 2.93%

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 1,358.60p 2.91%

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 448.70p 2.61%

Computacenter (CCC) 4,738.00p 2.55%

Standard Chartered (STAN) 2,208.00p 2.41%

Barclays (BARC) 439.45p 2.33%

Autotrader Group (AUTO) 570.80p 2.26%

IMI (IMI) 2,926.00p 2.16%

HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 1,361.20p 1.85%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Shell (SHEL) 3,627.00p -1.97%

BP (BP.) 548.00p -1.53%

The Sage Group (SGE) 1,145.00p -1.17%

Pearson (PSON) 1,268.00p -0.78%

Kingfisher (KGF) 377.80p -0.71%

Glencore (GLEN) 512.00p -0.70%

BT Group (BT.A) 212.10p -0.56%

Relx plc (REL) 2,958.00p -0.54%

Anglo American (AAL) 3,876.00p -0.46%

Admiral Group (ADM) 3,894.00p -0.46%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 395.50p 4.35%

Helios Towers (HTWS) 234.60p 3.81%

TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 5,525.00p 3.66%

Rosebank Industries NPV (ROSE) 330.50p 3.62%

ASOS (ASC) 445.00p 3.60%

Vistry Group (VTY) 267.70p 2.96%

Raspberry PI Holdings (RPI) 531.50p 2.86%

XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,634.00p 2.77%

Discoverie Group (DSCV) 822.00p 2.75%

Ocado Group (OCDO) 342.40p 2.57%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Avon Technologies (AVON) 2,290.00p -3.98%

NCC Group (NCC) 153.20p -3.53%

Coats Group (COA) 81.40p -2.92%

Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 544.00p -2.68%

EnQuest (ENQ) 25.70p -2.47%

Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 725.50p -2.42%

4Imprint Group (FOUR) 4,188.00p -2.38%

Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 206.00p -2.00%

Hochschild Mining (HOC) 503.00p -1.95%

Clarkson (CKN) 4,484.00p -1.67%