FTSE 100 Flat Amid Oil Rally, Retail Slowdown

(RTTNews) - U.K.'s equity benchmark FTSE 100 hovered around the flat line in late morning trades on Tuesday as weakness in financials and healthcare sectors offset gains in mining and energy space. Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East and the resultant rise in oil prices, the mood in the market remained quite cautious.

Oil prices rose sharply after Iran threatened to retaliate against any new U.S. attacks on its assets and Saudi-led coalition forces vowed a resolute response to a wave of attacks from Houthi rebels.

Brent crude futures rose to $99.46 a barrel, hitting a six-week high earlier in the day, before easing to around $98.60, still up as much as 1.7% over previous close.

The FTSE 100 was down 6.28 points or 0.06% at 10,815.85 at noon.

Antofagasta advanced nearly 4%. Halma, Weir, AutoTrader Group, Coca-Cola HBC, Airtel Africa, Spirax Group, Vodafone Group, Croda International, Anglo American Plc, Tesco, BP, Unilever, Marks & Spencer and Reckitt Benckiser gained 1%-2%.

Computacenter fell 4.4%. Burberry Group, Lloyds Banking Group, GSK, M&G, Convatec Group, SSE, IAG, Kingfisher, AstraZeneca, Standard Life, HSBC Holdings, Barclays, Next and Natwest Group lost 0.6%-1.3%.

A report from British Retail Consortium said UK retail sales rose 0.5% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis in August, slowing from a 1% increase in July and marking the weakest growth since October 2024. Total retail sales growth also eased to a four-month low of 0.7% from 1.3% in the previous month.