British Stocks Fall on Bond Market Selloff, Oil Price Surge; Tesco Soars

11:49 AM EDT, 10/08/2026 (MT Newswires) -- London's FTSE 100 closed 0.16% lower on Thursday, dragged down by rising oil prices and global bond market stress. An impending escalation of the US-Iran conflict weighed on sentiment as US President Donald Trump dismissed earlier plans for a deal with Iran. Instead, the White House engaged the Pentagon to potentially attack Iranian energy, infrastructure, and nuclear targets before the midterm election. In economic news back home, the UK Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors house price balance weakened to -32% in September from -28% in the previous month, breaking a four-month streak of improvement. "A renewed rise in interest rate expectations has created a fresh headwind for the housing market, with buyers becoming a little more cautious and sales activity losing some momentum this month," said RICS Head of Market Research and Analysis Tarrant Parsons. Meanwhile, the UK and Germany agreed to open their first-ever Industrial Tech Corridor to deepen their technology partnership. The new flagship initiative aims to connect industry leaders, tech companies and innovators with major industrial partners to promote collaboration and create opportunities across artificial intelligence and critical technologies. On the corporate front, Tesco (TSCO.L) was the top gainer on the blue-chip index, jumping 5.38%, after profit attributable to owners of the parent for the fiscal first half climbed to 1.06 billion pounds sterling from 950 million pounds a year ago. The supermarket group's revenue increased to 37.35 billion pounds from 36.04 billion pounds. "Tesco has released its H1 results this morning with H1 operating income ahead of consensus expectations, driven by all regions and [pretax profit] further ahead, we think helped by lower net interest costs than expected. Tesco has raised the lower end of its guidance range for FY27 operating profit and we note consensus was already towards the upper end of the range. We note very strong cash generation, even accounting for a c.GBP250mn timing benefit that is expected to unwind in H2, and Tesco has increased its share buyback for this year by GBP200mn," RBC Capital Markets said. Imperial Brands (IMB.L), up 4.70%, joined the top risers on the FTSE 100 after projecting 2026 group adjusted operating profit growth in line with its 3% to 5% guidance range. The British tobacco company also maintained expectations for high-single-digit growth in EPS, while launching a 1.5 billion-pound share repurchase program through Oct. 29, 2027. Aberdeen Group (ABDN.L) raised 436 million pounds from a secondary offering of 52 million shares in Standard Life (SDLF.L) at 8.39 pounds apiece. The 5.2% stake sale leaves the asset manager with a residual 5.2% interest in the insurance company. Shares of Aberdeen closed 1.37% higher, while Standard Life dropped 4.30% to become the worst-performing stock on the index.