FTSE 100 Slips As Weak Corporate Updates Weigh

(RTTNews) - U.K.'s equity benchmark FTSE 100 remains in negative territory Thursday morning after a weak start, due to some weak corporate updates, and data showing a drop in UK house prices in the month of December.

The FTSE 100, which dropped to a low of 9,997.50, was down 26.52 points or 0.26% at 10,021.69 a little while ago.

BAE Systems rallied 5% after U.S. President Donald Trump called for higher U.S. defense spending.

Marks & Spencer climbed up 2.1% after reporting healthy food sales growth over the vital Christmas period.

Endeavour Mining gained 3.5%. Coca-Cola HBC, Aviva, Standard Chartered, Natwest Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Diageo and EasyJet moved up 0.8 to 1.7%.

Associated British Foods tumbled 11.8% to a near 9-month low, following a profit warning by the group after Primark suffered a difficult Christmas amid a challenging UK clothing market, weaker sales in continental Europe and a volatile US retail backdrop.

Tesco slid 5.5% after UK like-for-like sales growth narrowly missed forecasts,

Sainsbury (J), 3i Group, Mondi, Ashtead Group, Croda International, Shell, Baratt Redrow, ICG and Experian lost 2 to 4%.

In economic news, UK house prices logged a slower growth in December as uncertainty weighed on housing market activity towards the end of the year, data from the mortgage lender Halifax showed.

House price growth halved to 0.3% in December from 0.6% in November. Average property price was GBP 297,755, which was the lowest since June.

Month-on-month, house prices dropped 0.6%, worse than November's 0.1% fall. This was the second consecutive fall in prices.