The FTSE 100 climbed on Tuesday as UK house prices rose for the first time in four months and NATO leaders opened a two-day summit in Ankara. Sterling slipped, while energy and gold prices moved on continued tension around the Strait of Hormuz.
British stocks advanced on Tuesday, with the FTSE 100 up 0.25% as of 03:15 ET, recovering the ground it lost in Monday's 0.3% decline. A rebound in domestic house prices gave the market a fresh reason to buy.
House prices turn higher
UK house prices rose for the first time in four months in June, with the Lloyds House Price Index showing a 0.2% monthly gain. That lifted the average property price to £299,330 from £298,812 in May.
Annual growth edged up to 0.6% from 0.5%. Northern Ireland led the regions with annual growth of 7.4%, while London fell 1.1% year-on-year to £534,831. According to Lloyds' Head of Mortgages Amanda Bryden: "Mortgage rates have eased from their recent highs, offering some encouragement to those considering a move."
The outlook, she added, will depend largely on inflation continuing to ease and household confidence gradually improving.
Europe mixed, sterling eases
Elsewhere in Europe, the picture was mixed. Germany's DAX fell 0.22% while France's CAC 40 rose 0.58%. Sterling inched lower 0.07% to 1.3379.
Company news drove some of the moves. Shell raised its second-quarter integrated gas production guidance, though it expects output to be sharply lower than in the first quarter because of the shutdown of its Pearl GTL facility in Qatar following the Ras Laffan attack. HSBC, meanwhile, is pulling back from riskier private credit lending to focus on lower-risk funds, the Financial Times reported.
Geopolitics keep energy bid
NATO leaders gathered in Ankara for a two-day summit, focused on converting last year's pledge to raise defence spending from 2% to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 into practical delivery. White House officials said President Donald Trump would hold bilateral meetings with the Ukrainian and Syrian presidents on the sidelines.
The backdrop stayed tense after a tanker caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz early Tuesday, struck by a projectile, the latest attack on shipping through the waterway since the start of the U.S.-Iran war. Talks between Washington and Tehran remained paused during the funeral of slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
That kept energy prices firm. Brent crude rose 1.28% to $72.91 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained 1.20% to $69.37. Gold futures fell 0.63% to $4,141.31 an ounce, with spot gold at $4,129.42, down 0.84%.
Source: Investing.com
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