17th Feb 2026 17:06
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London closed mostly higher on Tuesday, as investors shored up bets on the Bank of England cutting interest rates in March after unemployment increased, while the pound fell.
The FTSE 100 index closed up 82.48 points, 0.8%, at 10,556.17, a new record high. The FTSE 250 ended up 180.35 points, 0.8%, at 23,555.82, and the AIM all-share closed down 4.73 points, 0.6%, at 806.61.
The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.6% at 1,049.86, the Cboe UK 250 was 0.7% higher at 20,852.32, and the Cboe small companies was down 0.5% at 18,514.22.
In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris closed 0.5% higher, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended up 0.8%.
The pound was lower at USD1.3531 on Tuesday afternoon from USD1.3629 at the equities close on Monday. The euro stood lower at USD1.1830 from USD1.1854. Against the yen, the dollar was trading higher at JPY153.61 compared to JPY153.44.
The unemployment rate came in at 5.2% for the three months ended December, up from 5.1% in the three months ended November. The data was above the FXStreet-cited consensus, which had pencilled in another 5.1% reading.
The ONS estimated that the number of payrolled employees in the UK fell by 121,000, or 0.4%, in the year to December 2025, and decreased by 6,000 on-month.
"The rise in unemployment in December and drop in whole-economy average weekly earnings growth will grab the attention, and suggest sharply fading inflation pressures. Combined with payrolls still falling slightly the [Monetary Policy Committee] doves have enough to cut rates in March rather than waiting until April, so markets would be right to ramp up the probability of a March cut," said Pantheon Macroeconomics analyst Rob Wood.
Deutsche Bank analyst Sanjay Raja said the data "won't do much to assuage fears that the jobs market remains weak".
"How high will the jobless rate go? Today's data suggests there may be a little more room to go before we hit the cyclical peak in the unemployment rate. The single month jobless rate already sits at 5.4%. HMRC data suggests more redundancies are ahead. And almost every single survey points to limited hiring plans. This will put continued upward pressure on the jobless rate. Put simply, the jobs market remains stuck," Raja added.
In response to renewed interest rate cut hopes, Barratt Redrow was up 3.1%. Other property stocks also performed well, with real estate investor Land Securities up 2.4% and fellow housebuilder Persimmon 1.1% higher.
Stocks in New York were mixed, after being closed on Monday for a long weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was marginally higher, the S&P 500 index down 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite 0.2% lower.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was unchanged from Friday at 4.05%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury slimmed to 4.68% from 4.70%.
In London, Antofagasta fell 5.7% as it posted revenue and operating profit below analyst expectations.
The London-based miner operating in Chile said pretax profit climbed 53% to USD3.16 billion in 2025 from USD2.07 billion in 2024.
Revenue increased 30% to USD8.62 billion from USD6.61 billion, albeit a notch below Peel Hunt expectations of USD8.68 billion. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew 52% to a "record" USD5.20 billion from USD3.43 billion.
Operating profit from subsidiaries and share of total results from associates and joint ventures climbed 64% to USD3.43 billion in 2025 from USD2.08 billion in 2024. It was slightly below market consensus according to Peel Hunt of USD3.45 billion.
Antofagasta recommended a final dividend of 48.0 US cents per share for 2025, more than doubled from 23.5 cents a year ago. This brings the total payout for 2025 to 64.6 cents, more than doubled from 31.4 cents.
Peers Endeavour Mining, Anglo American and Fresnillo were also down 4.2%, 2.4% and 2.1% respectively.
On the FTSE 250 index, Raspberry Pi led the way as its shares jumped 36%.
Bloomberg News reported that the gains were driven by a social media post which said AI agents such as OpenClaw could drive demand for the firm's single-board computers. The post on X attracted 200,000 views.
A spokesperson for Raspberry Pi told Bloomberg that "there's nothing from the company side beyond what's already in the public domain".
SSP Group shares were up 6.6% after UBS raised its rating on the stock to 'buy'.
Applied Nutrition was 6.2% higher as it raised its revenue forecast for its current financial year above market expectations, citing a strong first-half performance.
The Merseyside, England-based wellness brand now sees revenue for the financial year ending July 31 of around GBP140 million, above market consensus of GBP133.5 million. Revenue will be up 31% from GBP107.1 million in financial 2025, when it was in turn up 24% from GBP86.2 million in financial 2024.
The positive results are thanks to the company's "channel diversification across UK high street health retailers, grocers and discounters" alongside "accelerated demand for a number of...product launches" in the first half of financial 2026, it said.
Among smaller caps, boohoo Group shares fell 6.7% as it confirmed it is preparing to raise GBP35 million in fresh equity and is in talks with its lenders to create additional liquidity.
The online fast fashion retailer that trades as Debenhams said the equity will be used to pay down its debt and provides the increased financial flexibility to purse its turnaround plan. It is speaking to its lending syndicate about improved covenant amendments due to its expected reduced leverage.
boohoo said Chief Executive Officer Dan Finley and directors Mahmud Kamani and Iain McDonald all will participate in the equity raise at 20 pence per share. Total support for the equity raise from directors and institutional shareholders is in excess of GBP24 million, boohoo said.
Brent oil was lower at USD67.17 a barrel on Tuesday afternoon from USD68.42 late Monday. Gold was down at USD4,882.00 an ounce from USD4,985.30.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, up 260.00p at 7,690.00p, Barratt Redrow, up 11.70p at 385.60p, Airtel Africa, up 10.40p at 346.60p, Pearson, up 25.80p at 929.80p and Compass Group, up 58.00p at 2,111.00p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Endeavour Mining, down 176.00p at 4,510.00p, Antofagasta, down 129.00p at 3,617.00p, Weir Group, down 80.00p at 3,430.00p, Anglo American, down 79.00p at 3,499.00p, and Fresnillo, down 80.00p at 3,734.00p.
On Wednesday's economic calendar, the UK will see CPI and PPI data at 0700 GMT, with French CPI later and US building permits and industrial production data to follow in the afternoon.
Wednesday's corporate calendar has full year results from defence contractor BAE Systems and miner Glencore, among others.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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Related Shares:
Barratt RedrowPersimmonLand SecuritiesAntofagastaEndeavour MiningFresnilloAnglo AmericanSSP GroupApplied NutriRaspberry PiBoohooCoca-cola Euro.Airtel AfricaPearsonCompass GroupWeir Group