London, UK – The FTSE 100 index closed higher on Thursday, up 11.96 points or 0.1% to 10,150.05, as President Donald Trump backtracked on his threat to impose tariffs on European allies. However, the index underperformed its European peers amid weakness in mining, energy and defence stocks.
The FTSE 250 ended the day 299.64 points higher, a 1.3% gain, at 23,370.93, while the AIM All-Share closed up 9.08 points, or 1.1%, at 817.67.
Trump said late on Wednesday that he had reached a framework for a deal over Greenland with NATO chief Mark Rutte and would waive the threatened tariffs. “We have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic region,” the US president said.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, commented: “The tariff risk is now on the back burner, and this week’s price action tells us that financial markets fear tariffs more than geopolitical risks.”
While the FTSE 100 made modest gains, it underperformed its European counterparts, with the CAC 40 in Paris closing up 1.0% and the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ending 1.2% higher. US markets were also higher at the time of the London close, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.9%, the S&P 500 0.7% higher and the Nasdaq Composite climbing 1.0%.
On the FTSE 100, defence stocks BAE Systems and Babcock International gave up 3.7% and 1.4% respectively, as the cooler geopolitical temperature weighed on the sector. Miners were another weak feature, with Antofagasta falling 2.2%, Glencore dropping 2.0% and Anglo American easing 1.7%.
Insurer Admiral fell a further 4.6% after RBC Capital Markets downgraded the stock to “sector perform” from “outperform”, a day after Goldman Sachs had lowered its rating. The weaker oil price also weighed on BP, down 1.9%, and Shell, down 2.2%.
On the FTSE 250, Computacenter led the way, up 10%, after the IT services provider reported better-than-expected trading in 2025. Senior also rose 8.8% as it boosted its full-year profit guidance for the second time in three months.
Gold prices continued their record-breaking run, with the precious metal quoted at $4,874.80 per ounce on Thursday, up from $4,833.66 the previous day.
