FTSE 100 Up Nearly 0.5% As Weak Jobs Data Fuels Rate Cut Hopes

The UK stock market’s FTSE 100 remains firmly up around its record high a little past noon on Tuesday, extending gains to a third straight session.

Data showing an increase in the nation’s unemployment rate has raised expectations of another rate cut by the Bank of England.

The FTSE 100 was up 44.88 points or 0.43% at 10,518.57 a few minutes past noon.

Among the major gainers, Barratt Redrow is rising 3.5%. Relex, Airtel Africa and Persimmon are up 2%-2.5%.

GSK gained more than 2% after launching a £2 billion share buyback program.

Centrica, Compass Group, Legal & General, Pearson, Land Securities Group, BP, British Land Co., Experian, Aviva, Berkeley Group Holdings, Prudential, SSE and National Grid are also notably higher.

Miners are losing ground. Antofagasta is down 4% despite delivering record full-year earnings, while Anglo American Plc, Fresnillo, Glencore and Endeavour Mining are down 1.9%-2.7%. Rio Tinto is declining by about 1.25%.

BHP is up more than 1% after posting earnings at the upper end of analyst expectations.

Weir Group, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Melrose Industries, Rolls-Royce Holdings and Babcock International are among the other notable losers.

Official data showed the U.K. jobless rate rose to 5.2% in the fourth quarter from 5.1% in the preceding period.

Annual growth in employees’ average earnings including bonus was 4.2% but weaker than the forecast of 4.6%. In January, payroll employees decreased 11,000 from the previous month to 30.3 million.