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The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) finished in the green on Wednesday while US markets slumped, following news that the US economy contracted in the first part of this year.
London’s blue-chip index ended the day in the green, rising 31 points to finish the day at 8495, a 0.4% rise.
But on Wall Street, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down 1% as European markets were closing, while the Dow Jones was down 0.74%, both recovering from even steeper falls.
The UK market also slumped during the afternoon after the news of a 0.3% fall in US gross domestic product (GDP) for the first three months of 2025, before eventually clawing back the losses.
Kallum Pickering, chief economist at Peel Hunt, said the fall “is not the headline US President Donald Trump would have hoped for to mark his first 100 days back in office”.
He added: “However, the first quarter GDP drop is down entirely to his administration’s misguided trade policies – which had been signalled on the campaign trail.”
Elsewhere, Germany’s Dax (^GDAXI) rose 0.1% and France’s Cac 40 (^FCHI) increased 0.4%.
Sterling was down 0.5% against the dollar at 1.3338, while it was 0.2% down against the euro at 1.1757.
In company news, Barclays’ (BARC.L) profits surged by nearly a fifth thanks to a boom in trading activity sparked by the US trade war.
The UK banking giant reported a better-than-expected 19% rise in pre-tax profits but it also said it set aside more cash for bad debts due to worries over the American economy.
The group said it “continues to monitor the heightened uncertainty in the near-term macroeconomic outlook, especially in the US”.
Barclays has an exposure to the tariff woes and US economy through its sizeable operations in America, where it has 20 million customers.
Shares in the group fell 1.4% on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, drugmaker GSK (GSK.L) (GlaxoSmithKline) said it is “well positioned” to cope with any financial impact from changes to US tariff rules.
It came as the FTSE 100 giant revealed a rise in sales as weakness in its vaccine division was offset by growth in speciality medicines.
This came on the back of a boost from its speciality medicines division, where sales rose 17% on the back of strong demand for oncology, respiratory and HIV treatments.
Shares rose 3.7%.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) were Smith & Nephew (SN.L), up 58p to 1054p, CocaCola HBC (CCH.L), up 146p to 3900p, GSK (GSK.L), up 51.5p to 1483.5p, Pearson (PSON.L), up 41.5p to 1196.5p, and SSE (SSE.L), up 48p to 1692p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Glencore (GLEN.L), down 19.5p to 244.4p, Anglo American (AAL.L), down 98.5p to 2029p, Antofagasta (ANTO.L), down 61p to 1633p, HSBC (HSBA.L), down 23.6p to 832p, and JD Sport (JD.L)s, down 2.16p to 78.58p.