(RTTNews) – U.K. stocks opened on a positive note Friday morning after data showed an unexpected increase in UK retail sales in September. However, the market turned a bit easy subsequently, due largely to selling in some mining stocks as metal prices dropped from record highs.
The FTSE 100 index, which advanced to 9,601.37 early on in the session, was down 8.52 points or 0.09% at 9,570.05 a few minutes past noon.
London Stock Exchange, which closed sharply higher on Thursday, continues to move higher, gaining about 3.6%.
Natwest Group is up nearly 3%, and Burberry Group is gaining 2.3%. Relx, Tesco, Kingfisher, Compass Group, Next, Scottish Mortgage, Diploma, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Pearson are up 1 to 1.8%.
Fresnillo is down nearly 3%. Metlen Energy & Metals is declining by 2.6%. LondonMetric Property, Airtel Africa, Endeavour Mining, BAE Systems, SSE, WPP, GSK, Rolls-Royce…


