London stocks had pushed higher by midday on Thursday after a flat start as investors mulled better-than-expected GDP figures.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 10,224.23, having hit a fresh intraday high of 10,243, while sterling was down 0.2% against the dollar at 1.3422.

At the same time, oil prices fell after US President Donald Trump toned down his language towards Iran's leaders over the killing of anti-regime protestors.

Joshua Mahony at Scope Markets said: "Oil prices have turned lower after Donald Trump cooled calls for near-term military action in Iran, saying he was reassured by information that the regime would stop killing people involved in the recent protests.

"While many will look at this as another opportunity for the US to open up a maligned nation to higher oil exports, the fact is that Iran already produces much more that Venezuela and that output is at risk if the government falls.

"Concerns around the potential disruption to the flow of oil through the straits of Hormuz, coupled with the potential impact on Iranian output in the event of a military conflict means that the recent bearish oil thesis has been turned on its head this week."

On the macro front, data from the Office for National Statistics showed the economy grew more than expected in November.

GDP grew 0.3% following a 0.1% contraction in October, and versus expectations for just 0.1% growth. September's figures were revised to show growth of 0.1%, up from an initial estimate of a fall of 0.1%.

The services sector grew 0.3% while production expanded by 1.1%, but construction fell 1.3% in November.

The data showed that production of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers grew 25.5% in November following 9.6% growth in October and a 29.5% decline in September, when operations at JLR were hit by a cyberattack.

The ONS said the industry has now almost returned to August 2025 levels.

Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: "The economy grew slightly in the latest three months, led by growth in the services sector, which performed better in November following a weak October.

"This was partially offset by a fall in manufacturing, where three-monthly growth was still affected by the cyber incident that impacted car production earlier in the Autumn.

"However, data for the latest month show that this industry has now largely recovered.

"Construction contracted again, registering its largest three-monthly fall in nearly three years."

In equity markets, banks were among the risers, with NatWest, HSBC and Barclays all higher. Joshua Mahony said the gains "bring a recovery from a sector that has been hit by Trump's recent move to limit credit card interest rates to 10%".

Schroders surged to the top of the FTSE 100 after the asset manager said full-year adjusted operating profit was set to be at least £745m, coming in ahead of market expectations.

Emerging markets asset manager Ashmore also rallied as it said second-quarter assets under management rose 8% to $3.8bn.

Oxford Biomedica shot higher after confirming late on Wednesday that it was in preliminary talks with private equity firm EQT, having received unsolicited takeover proposals that were rejected for undervaluing the group.

Savills gained after saying it delivered a "good" performance in FY25 despite challenging markets.

On the downside, oil giant BP gushed lower in tandem with oil prices.

Homeware retailer Dunelm tanked after saying it expects full-year profits to come in at the lower end of market forecasts as a result of a "challenging environment" in the first half, in which sales growth slowed significantly towards the end of 2025.

Full-year pre-tax profit is now expected to be at the bottom end of the £214m-227m consensus range.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey was off earlier lows but still in the red after it said annual profits looked set to narrowly miss expectations. Operating profits were slated to come in around £420m, up on last year's £416.2m but below the £424m forecast.

Peer Persimmon also fell.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,224.23 0.39%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,116.49 0.69%
techMARK (TASX) 5,878.55 0.56%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Schroders (SDR) 444.40p 6.47%
3i Group (III) 3,191.00p 5.14%
LondonMetric Property (LMP) 200.20p 2.46%
Centrica (CNA) 180.80p 2.44%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 364.00p 2.36%
Tesco (TSCO) 430.70p 2.23%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,381.00p 2.18%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 2,508.00p 1.95%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,319.00p 1.86%
NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 640.80p 1.71%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,284.00p -3.49%
Fresnillo (FRES) 3,644.00p -3.24%
Compass Group (CPG) 2,270.00p -2.20%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 14,770.00p -2.06%
BP (BP.) 434.55p -2.02%
Diageo (DGE) 1,669.00p -1.33%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 82.20p -1.30%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,763.00p -1.07%
The Sage Group (SGE) 1,043.00p -1.04%
Kingfisher (KGF) 313.90p -1.04%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Ashmore Group (ASHM) 214.00p 17.26%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 885.00p 10.07%
Savills (SVS) 1,102.00p 8.25%
Abrdn (ABDN) 220.60p 5.25%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,283.00p 4.91%
Rathbones Group (RAT) 2,095.00p 4.75%
Trustpilot Group (TRST) 220.80p 3.47%
Safestore Holdings (SAFE) 794.00p 3.25%
Cranswick (CWK) 5,080.00p 3.15%
XPS Pensions Group (XPS) 346.00p 2.98%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Dunelm Group (DNLM) 964.00p -17.61%
Future (FUTR) 503.00p -3.27%
Hays (HAS) 47.06p -2.73%
Vietnam Enterprise Investments (DI) (VEIL) 827.00p -2.25%
RTW Biotech Opportunities Ltd (RTW) 2.27p -2.16%
Energean (ENOG) 921.50p -1.97%
Ithaca Energy (ITH) 168.70p -1.92%
Harbour Energy (HBR) 206.60p -1.90%
WPP (WPP) 321.40p -1.83%
Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 743.00p -1.59%