-- London's FTSE 100 slipped 0.05% on Thursday's close as Israel's strikes in Lebanon led Iran to halt the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz again, casting doubts over its ceasefire with the US.
"Iran and US remain far apart on key issues, so a new escalation is likely," Danske Bank said. Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the parliament of Iran, noted the violation of three points of the ceasefire agreement. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump posted on the Truth Social platform that US forces will stay put until the "real agreement" is fully complied with, adding that the US military is "looking forward, actually, to its next conquest" if the agreement is not honored.
On the economic side, the UK Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors house price balance stood at -23% in March 2026, down from the revised -14% in the previous month. The latest reading missed the consensus estimate of -18% and was the weakest since December 2023.
"The mood across the UK housing market has shifted markedly over the past couple of months. What had been a cautiously improving picture for activity has been knocked off course by the wider macro fallout from the Middle East conflict, as the renewed deterioration in the mortgage rate outlook has proved particularly challenging. ... The path ahead hinges on whether or not recent surges in oil and energy costs begin to reverse in what remains a highly uncertain geopolitical environment," said RICS Head of Market Research and Analysis Tarrant Parsons.
"The March survey data is unambiguously negative for UK-listed housebuilders in the near term. The sharp deterioration in buyer demand, the collapse in near-term sales expectations (to -33%), and the acceleration in downward price pressure all point to a more challenging trading environment heading into Q2 2026," RBC Capital Markets said.
In corporate news, bourse operator London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG.L) climbed 0.18% after initiating a share buyback program worth up to 900 million pounds sterling.
Meanwhile, British American Tobacco (BATS.L), down 1.99%, appointed Dragos Constantinescu as chief financial officer, effective Sept. 1. Until then, Javed Iqbal will continue as the tobacco and nicotine products giant's interim CFO.