(Sharecast News) - London stocks had extended gains by midday on Thursday, with the top-flight index hitting an all-time high as investors shrugged off Trump's trade war rhetoric.
The FTSE 100 was up 1.1% at 8,960.27, having hit a fresh intraday high of 8,973.
Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said: "European markets in general continue to shrug off Donald Trump's daily tariff updates, perhaps seeing them as noise and not facts. Trump is throwing out numbers left, right and centre, and investors have begun to dismiss anything that isn't set in stone.
"So many of Trump's decisions have either been rolled back, forgotten about, or kicked down the road. For investors, that means a shift in focus back to economic data and corporate news flow as key drivers for markets."
In equity markets, heavily-weighted miners were the best performers on the FTSE 100 following losses the previous day, with Anglo American, Rio Tinto, Glencore and Antofagasta all up.
Advertising agency WPP gained as it appointed Microsoft executive Cindy Rose as chief executive to succeed Mark Read who will step down on 1 September. The shares fell sharply on Wednesday after WPP slashed annual profit forecasts.
Jupiter Fund Management surged as it agreed to buy CCLA - the UK's largest asset manager focused on serving non-profit organisations - for 100m.
Iconic bootmaker Dr Martens advanced as it held annual guidance and said it continued to see positive trading in its Americas direct to consumer operations, driven by full price sales, although its UK business continued to experience a challenging trading backdrop.
Rank Group rallied as it said annual profits would come in ahead of expectations despite a backdrop of higher costs and regulatory uncertainty.
Recruiter Pagegroup rose despite reporting a steeper rate of profit decline in the second quarter, with particular weakness in the EMEA and UK divisions. For the full year, the board said it still expects to hit market forecasts for operating profit, though subdued levels of client and candidate confidence are continuing to impact decision making.
On the downside, water and sewage firm Severn Trent edged lower even as it reiterated its full-year outlook, underpinned by ongoing work to find and fix leaks.
Building materials distributor Grafton slumped as it said first-half trading was in line with its expectations but that many of its markets remain challenging and it is not expecting a significant increase in volumes this year.
British Land and Land Securities were both knocked lower by downgrades to 'underperform' at Jefferies.
Vistry reversed earlier gains as the housebuilder said it remains on track to deliver a year-on-year increase in profits in FY25, supported by a forward order book of 4.3bn and a "strong" pipeline of development opportunities.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,960.27 1.05%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,629.28 0.28%
techMARK (TASX) 5,154.30 0.71%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Anglo American (AAL) 2,272.00p 4.70%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,456.00p 4.20%
Glencore (GLEN) 310.60p 4.16%
Spirax Group (SPX) 6,390.00p 3.23%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,295.00p 2.94%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,911.50p 2.55%
WPP (WPP) 439.20p 2.47%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,484.00p 2.42%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 10,612.00p 2.41%
Weir Group (WEIR) 2,598.00p 2.12%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 8,590.00p -1.99%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 584.50p -1.85%
SSE (SSE) 1,854.00p -1.70%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 356.80p -1.52%
easyJet (EZJ) 519.60p -1.14%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,076.00p -1.10%
Centrica (CNA) 155.90p -0.80%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,240.00p -0.72%
National Grid (NG.) 1,026.50p -0.68%
Admiral Group (ADM) 3,258.00p -0.67%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 122.20p 12.73%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 226.50p 3.66%
Bridgepoint Group (Reg S) (BPT) 335.00p 3.40%
Hill and Smith (HILS) 1,870.00p 2.97%
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 149.40p 2.89%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 271.80p 2.57%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 395.60p 2.43%
IntegraFin Holding (IHP) 327.50p 2.34%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 374.40p 2.30%
Zigup (ZIG) 335.00p 2.29%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Grafton Group Ut (CDI) (GFTU) 919.70p -7.57%
Bytes Technology Group (BYIT) 342.60p -3.60%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 574.00p -3.12%
Great Portland Estates (GPE) 335.50p -2.75%
Drax Group (DRX) 693.00p -2.19%
Vistry Group (VTY) 613.00p -2.08%
Genus (GNS) 2,160.00p -2.04%
Shaftesbury Capital (SHC) 151.90p -1.94%
British Land Company (BLND) 352.80p -1.89%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,029.00p -1.81%
34.54 (0.38%)
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