London midday: Stocks stay up amid conflicting Mideast messages

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were still in the black by midday on Tuesday as oil prices dipped amid conflicting messages on the status of US-Iran peace talks, and as investors mulled the latest UK mortgage approvals and lending data.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 10,377.42, while Brent crude was 1.1% lower at $93.94 a barrel.

Stocks fell and oil rallied on Monday following reports that Iran had pulled out of talks with the US over Israel's operations in Lebanon. US President Donald Trump subsequently told CNBC that he didn't care if the talks with Iran were over.

"I really don't care. I couldn't care less," Trump reportedly told CNBC's Eamon Javers in a telephone interview, adding that he thought the discussions were "started to get very boring".

However, Trump also told ABC News that he thought there could be an agreement with Iran to extend the ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz "over the next week."

"Looking good, looking good," he reportedly told ABC News' chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl in a telephone conversation on Monday. "There was a little glitch today, but I turned that one around very quickly, as you probably noticed earlier," Trump said.

ABC said the glitch, according to Trump, was that Tehran was upset about Israel's attacks on Lebanon.

Trump also claimed on Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop fighting.

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: "The London market has lifted in early trade as oil prices have dipped back a little, and bargain hunters appear keen to buy the dip of recent days. There is no concrete progress in Middle East negotiations to hang a hat on, but investors appear broadly optimistic that a longer-term resolution will be reached. Even devastating attacks by Russia on Ukraine have not hit sentiment, with investors shrugging off tense geopolitics.

"Instead, AI enthusiasm is still the talk of the town, with Anthropic is joining the listing party, filing paperwork for an IPO later this year. The company is clearly keen to capitalise on mega-enthusiasm washing through markets for artificial intelligence investments. It's hot on the heels of SpaceX's filing, and there are expectations that OpenAI will also go public pretty soon. Anthropic may attract particularly strong investor demand because it has built a reputation as one of the more enterprise-focused and safety-conscious AI firms."

On home shores, figures from the Bank of England showed that mortgage approvals jumped in April by more than expected.

According to the central bank's latest Money and Credit Report, there were 65,940 net mortgage approvals for house purchases, higher than the six-month average of around 63,100 and March's 63,980. Consensus had been for a decline to around 61,700.

Net borrowing of mortgage debt fell to £4.4bn from £6.8bn, while consumer credit was unchanged at £1.9bn.

In equity markets, property portal Rightmove was the top performer on the FTSE 100 after the better-than-expected mortgage approvals data.

Raspberry Pi surged, rising in line with the broader global technology and AI rally.

Ladbrokes owner Entain also advanced. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the shares were extending Monday's rally "as investors speculated it could come up trumps from Barry Diller's People Inc trying to buy MGM Resorts".

He added: "Entain has a joint venture with MGM and investors are wondering if People Inc might want to buy out the UK partner's share in BetMGM."

Elementis jumped after saying it will return around $35m to shareholders following completion of the sale of its pharmaceutical manufacturing business to Associated British Foods.

British Land gained as it announced the appointment of Joanne McNamara as its next chief executive. McNamara is joining from Oxford Properties, where she is currently executive vice president, Europe.

On the downside, British American Tobacco slumped after it said in a first-half update that it was on track to meet the lower end of full-year guidance.

Shell and BP gushed lower as oil prices fell, while GB Group tumbled as it said one-off development costs will hit operating margins next year as it invests in its customer identity platform, GBG Go.

Defence company Chemring lost ground as it posted a record order book but a drop in interim profit.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,377.42 0.37%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,438.89 0.83%

techMARK (TASX) 6,033.50 -0.04%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Rightmove (RMV) 441.60p 4.05%

Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 7,796.00p 3.86%

Fresnillo (FRES) 3,338.00p 3.33%

Kingfisher (KGF) 285.30p 3.29%

Autotrader Group (AUTO) 464.20p 3.08%

Land Securities Group (LAND) 641.00p 2.97%

Next (NXT) 13,270.00p 2.87%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 4,254.00p 2.83%

Entain (ENT) 578.60p 2.70%

ICG (ICG) 1,883.00p 2.62%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,434.00p -3.17%

Airtel Africa (AAF) 343.40p -3.00%

BP (BP.) 525.80p -1.85%

Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,027.50p -1.77%

Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,645.00p -1.67%

Haleon (HLN) 323.20p -1.10%

GSK (GSK) 1,825.00p -1.06%

Experian (EXPN) 2,649.00p -1.01%

Shell (SHEL) 3,168.50p -0.84%

AstraZeneca (AZN) 13,338.00p -0.64%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Raspberry PI Holdings (RPI) 884.75p 8.83%

Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 197.20p 8.63%

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 47.80p 5.71%

WH Smith (SMWH) 522.50p 5.47%

Ocado Group (OCDO) 211.60p 4.58%

IntegraFin Holding (IHP) 351.50p 4.15%

Elementis (ELM) 157.80p 4.08%

Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 141.40p 3.97%

Genuit Group (GEN) 252.20p 3.70%

B&M European Value Retail (BME) 174.60p 3.50%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

GB Group (GBG) 221.00p -10.34%

Chemring Group (CHG) 475.60p -6.48%

Ceres Power Holdings (CWR) 780.00p -4.24%

Diversified Energy Company (DI) (DEC) 1,080.00p -3.74%

Ithaca Energy (ITH) 226.40p -1.39%

Harbour Energy (HBR) 277.00p -1.28%

TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 4,370.00p -1.27%

Premier Foods (PFD) 195.20p -1.11%

Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 360.00p -1.10%

Playtech (PTEC) 349.20p -1.08%