Friday Morning Markets: FTSE Climbs as Oil Retreats From $100; discoverIE, Renishaw Surge

It is a positive Friday morning so far, with London stocks advancing. The FTSE 100 is up 0.5% and the FTSE 250 has gained 0.4%.

The move is stronger on the continent, where Germany’s DAX has risen 1%, the Euro Stoxx 50 has added 0.8% and France’s CAC 40 has climbed 0.3%.

Brent crude fell 2.8% to $97.93 a barrel, easing after topping $100 in the previous session.

The benchmark is still up more than 10% in the last week after Houthi attacks on Red Sea tankers opened a second front in the Middle East conflict. President Donald Trump threatened major military punishment for any further attacks on shipping and told Axios he was weighing a large-scale strike on Iran, following a 13th wave of U.S. attacks.

Domestically, UK retail sales rose 1% in June, down from 1.2% but well ahead of the -0.3% consensus.

3i (LON: III) leads the blue chips, up 3.48%, with JD Sports (LON: JD.) rising 3.12% and Pershing Square (LON: PSH) adding 2.91%.

Airtel Africa (LON: AAF) has fallen 3.94%, while the oil pullback pulled BP (LON: BP.) down 0.83% and Shell (LON: SHEL) down 0.66%.

HSBC (LON: HSBA) revealed it has agreed to sell its Singapore life and health insurance arm to Allianz for $2.1 billion in cash, while Reckitt (LON: RKT) announced that it will divest its Russian hygiene business to Arnest Management.

discoverIE (LON: DSCV) tops the FTSE 250, up 12.81%, after first-quarter organic orders jumped 31% and full-year earnings were flagged ahead of expectations.

Meanwhile, Renishaw (LON: RSW) has risen 6.51% on a record fourth quarter, with annual profit now seen up 31%.

Flooring group Victoria (LON: VCP) reported a widened statutory net loss of £326.3 million as underlying revenue fell 6.3% to £1.05 billion, though it guided to at least £115 million of EBITDA in FY2027 and flagged a further bond refinancing.

Elsewhere, Wise has dropped over 6% after the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency denied its national trust bank charter application, citing a consent order over historical compliance failings.