FTSE 100 Down Marginally; Miners Climb Higher
(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks turned in a mixed performance Wednesday morning with investors mostly reluctant to make big moves amid a lack of fresh triggers. Easing worries about Middle East amid renewed hopes for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and weak oil prices aided sentiment a bit.
Brent crude futures dropped to $84.56 a barrel, losing about 3%, on reports that Oman and Iran had discussed establishing a temporary joint maritime corridor in the Strait of Hormuz.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 11.80 points or 0.11% at 10,874.36 a little while ago.
Miners Antofagasta and Fresnillo moved up 2.75% and 2.2%, respectively. Endeavour Mining gained 1.3% and Anglo American Plc climbed 1.2%.
Diploma, Halma, Persimmon, JD Sports Fashion, IAG, Airtel Africa, Spirax Group, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Burberry Group, Convatec Group, Aberdeen Group, Barratt Redrow, Lion Finance, Weir and Coca-Cola HBC advanced 1%-2.3%.
The Sage Group dropped about 3.5%. BP and Shell shed 2.3% and 1.4%, respectively, as oil prices fell sharply.
Experian, Entain, Compass Group, BAE Systems, Relx, LSEG, AstraZeneca and Metlen Energy & Metals also drifted notably lower.
In economic news, a report from the Confederation of British Industry showed headline sales balance fell to -48 in August from -26 in July, well below market expectations of -24.
