(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks rose on Tuesday, with banks and consumer staple stocks leading the surge in cautious trade.
The benchmark FTSE 100 climbed 68 points, or 0.9 percent, to 7,284 after declining 2.3 percent on Monday.
U.K. retail sales declined in April as consumers reduced their spending amid rising cost of living, data compiled by the British Retail Consortium and the advisory services firm KPMG showed earlier in the day.
Total sales were down 0.3 percent in April from the last year, marking the first fall since January 2021. At the same time, like-for-like sales decreased 1.7 percent annually.
Banks Barclays, HSBC Holdings and Lloyds Banking were up 1-2 percent while consumer goods firm Unilever rallied 2.1 percent.
Precision-measurement specialist Spectris jumped 3.7 percent after it has agreed to buy California-based Dytran Instruments Inc. for $82 million.
3i Infrastructure gained around 1 percent after posting a rise in FY 2022 pretax profit.
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