UK house price growth slowed at the start of the year, according to data from lender Nationwide Building Society.

Prices in January edged up just 0.1% on the month, down from December’s 0.7% gain and missing expectations for a 0.3% rise.

On an annual basis, growth eased to 4.1% from 4.7% in December, with the average property price slipping to £268,213 from £269,426.

Robert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide, said: “The housing market continues to show resilience despite ongoing affordability pressures.”

On London’s equity market, engineering company Smiths Group surged 10.78% after announcing plans to sell its interconnect unit and either demerge or offload its detection business.

Fashion and home interiors stalwart Next gained 1.8% after UBS upgraded the retailer to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’, citing an “inflection point” in both growth and valuation.

Aberdeen-based energy services company Wood Group, which last week landed a new long-term maintenance contract with Esso Australia, rose 5.93% to 72.3p.

The FTSE 100 index rose 0.31% to close at 8,673.96 points, another successive record close as it ended its strongest week for two years. The FTSE 250 advanced 0.7%.

President Trump’s threat of trade tariffs is said to have persuaded investors to look for alternatives to US assets, particularly big American technology stocks.

Even so, US stock indices shrugged off Monday’s sell-off and were on track to overcome their January peaks as fresh inflation data came in on par with expectations.