FTSE 100 Up Marginally

(RTTNews) - After a positive start and a subsequent slip, UK market's benchmark FTSE 100 edged higher in late morning trades on Thursday with select frontline stocks moving up on fairly strong buying support.

The FTSE 100, which dropped to 9,726.00 in early trades, was up 16.98 points or 0.17% at 9,709.05 about a quarter before noon.

Burberry Group climbed nearly 4%. Ashtead Group advanced 3.2%, Spirax Group gained 2.75% and Whitbread moved up 2.1%.

Mondi, Land Securities, WPP, Berkeley Group Holdings, Halma, Marks & Spencer, 3i Group, Intercontinental Hotels Group, JD Sports Fashion, St. James's Place, Metlen Energy & Metals, Pershing Square Holdings and Melrose Industries gained 1.3 to 2%.

Airtel Africa, SSE, Endeavour Mining, Auto Trader Group, Fresnillo, Entain and LSEG lost 1.2 to 2.5%.

Future Plc shares soared 11% in early trades, but pared some gains subsequently and was up 6% a little while ago. After a difficult 2025 marked by weaker advertising demand and a slowdown in price comparison searches, the specialist media group forecast "modest organic revenue growth" in the year to September 2026.

Vodafone Group shares were down 0.4% after the company's African unit signed a pact to purchase a controlling stake in Kenyan telecommunications operator Safaricom.

In economic news, the S&P Global UK Construction PMI fell to 39.4 in November from 44.1 in October, pointing to the steepest downturn in UK construction output for five-and-a-half years, amid challenging market conditions, data from S&P Global showed.