(Reuters) -Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up higher on Tuesday as industrial miners advanced after Anglo American jumped on a merger deal.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 edged up 0.1% by 0927 GMT, while the domestically focussed mid-cap index was flat.
Industrial miners rose 3.2%, led by Anglo American, that rose 9.9%, to top the FTSE 100, after the miner said it has agreed to merge with Canada’s Teck Resources in a $53 billion deal to form a newly combined company Anglo Teck.
“Despite the uncertainties around whether the Teck takeover will truly generate value for the company and investors…the deal is a win for the UK stock market as the enlarged Anglo Teck group will have its primary listing in London,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
“Anglo clearly believes the UK works well as a listing venue and that sends a positive message to other businesses undergoing M&A.”
Precious metal miners rose for a third day, tracking higher gold. Endeavour Mining added 2.1%, while Hochschild Mining rose 1.3%.
The real estate sector also advanced, with Segro up 1.7%.
On the flip side, Aerospace and defence companies led sectoral declines with Rolls-Royce down 1.4%, while BAE Systems fell 1.1%.
Other industrials stocks such as Spirax and Experian also declined.
Among other moves, homeware retailer Dunelm fell 8.3%, to the bottom of the mid-cap index, after it cautioned that it has yet to see signs of sustained recovery in consumer demand.
Gamma Communications rose 5.8%, to top the mide-cap index, on strong first-half revenue growth.
Technology and services provider Computacenter gained 2.5% on flagging strong start to third-quarter.
Insurer Phoenix Group was up 2.3% following a 7.6% decline in the previous session when it said it would rebrand as Standard Life in March 2026, and reported a larger-than-expected drop in book value due to market moves.
Meanwhile, a survey showed British shoppers spent more in August, helped by summer weather.
(Reporting by Sukriti Gupta; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
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