London's FTSE 100 climbs to record high on energy, defence gains

Jan 6 (Reuters) - The UK's FTSE 100 climbed to a record high on Tuesday, holding steady above the 10,000-point mark, with oil and defence stocks extending gains after U.S. strikes on Venezuela over the weekend.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 .FTSE rose 0.5% to 10,057.56 points by 1012 GMT, after it topped the five-digit-point milestone for the first time last week.

Meanwhile, the domestically focused mid-cap index .FTMC dipped 0.1%, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX was up just 0.1%.

The London benchmark's new high came off the back of a strong 2025, when it outperformed Europe's STOXX 600 and the U.S. S&P 500 .SPX, driven by gains in commodity-linked sectors and expectations of more monetary policy easing by the Bank of England.

Shell SHEL.L and BP BP.L rose 1.3% and 0.8%, respectively, after oil prices edged higher on Tuesday amid uncertainty around Venezuelan crude output following the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro. O/R

The index of Aerospace and Defence .FTNMX502010 was up 1.9%, benefitting from escalating geopolitical tension, with Rolls-Royce RR.L climbing 2.1%, and Babcock International BAB.L and BAE Systems BAES.L gaining 2.4% and 1.8%, respectively.

Meanwhile, a Deloitte survey showed British company executives have grown slightly more optimistic after Finance Minister Rachel Reeves' budget, with CFOs more willing to raise investment despite overall sentiment remaining muted.

Among individual stocks, Next NXT.L was up 2.5% as the fashion retailer reported a better-than-expected increase in full-price sales for the nine weeks to December 27 and increased its annual profit outlook for the fifth time over the last year.

Ocado was up 6.3% after Worldpanel said the online supermarket group recorded the highest sales growth in the Christmas quarter.