FTSE 100 Up In Positive Territory As Political Concerns Ease

(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks are up in positive territory on Thursday amid easing political concerns after the nation's Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly backed Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

The reassurance from Starmer that Reeve would remain Chancellor "many years to come" has helped lift investor sentiment.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 42.98 points or 0.49% at 8,817.67 a few minutes ago.

Coca-Cola HBC, Convatec Group, Croda International, Pershing Square Holdings and Berkeley Group Holdings are up 2.2 to 2.7%.

SSE, Lloyds Banking Group, Airtel Africa, Standard Chartered, Intermediate Capital Group, Whitbread, Natwest Group, Hiscox, Weir Group, Next, Fresnillo, British American Tobacco and Fresnillo are also notably higher.

Murray Income Trust is up 2.7% after its board launched a surprise strategic review. 3i Infrastructure is up nearly 1% after it reported fiscal Q1 total income in line with expectations.

Melrose Industries is down by about 1.9%. Rio Tinto is declining 1.25%, while Anglo American Plc, Scottish Mortgage, F&C Investment Trust and Entain are down 0.6 to 0.7%.

Watches of Switzerland Group Plc shares are down 8% after the company warned of a margin hit from U.S. tariffs.

On the economic front, data from S&P Global showed that the UK S&P Global Composite PMI was revised up to 52.0 in June 2025 from the preliminary 50.7 and up from 50.3 in May, marking the second straight month above the 50.0 growth threshold after April's brief contraction.

The S&P Global UK Services PMI was revised slightly higher to 52.8 in June 2025 from a preliminary of 51.3, and above May's reading of 50.9. The latest data indicated a faster expansion in the country's services sector, and the strongest since August 2024.