London-listed stocks concluded the trading week on a positive note, buoyed by the UK economy's return to expansion in August after experiencing two months of stagnation. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index recorded a modest gain of 0.19% at the close of Friday's trading session. This upswing can be attributed to the latest figures released by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS), which indicated that in August, the country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.2% month-over-month, following a standstill in July.
Such growth is a result of heightened activity across services, production, and construction sectors during the reported month. An analyst from ING shared insights on the implications of this growth: "We’re looking for 0.2% growth in the third quarter overall. This suggests the Bank of England was right to treat the stronger first-half growth figures with skepticism.
Although it could have seized the opportunity to adjust its growth forecasts upward for the next few years due to these better figures, it wisely chose not to." In a contrasting report from the ONS, it was noted that the UK's total goods and services trade deficit increased to £10 billion in the three months leading to August.
The office attributed this widening deficit to an uptick in goods imports, signaling potential concerns regarding trade balances. On the corporate front, BP, identified by its ticker symbol $BP, saw its shares dip by 0.34% after the company cautioned that its upstream production for the third quarter is anticipated to remain "broadly flat" when compared to the second quarter's figures. These developments illustrate a mixed picture for the UK's economy and its stock market, with the FTSE 100 showing resilience amid fluctuating trade balances and corporate performance..