By Julien Ponthus
PARIS (Reuters) - UK blue chips, backed by buoyant mining and construction material stocks, were up for their first September trades on Friday after outperforming their European peers with a second consecutive monthly rise in August.
The FTSE 100 (FTSE) rose 0.4 percent by 0837 GMT while the wider FTSE 250 (FTMC) was held back with a 0.2 percent retreat due to the collapse of Indivior's shares (L:INDV).
The drugmaker's shares sank about 40 percent after it said it would appeal against a U.S. court ruling which potentially opens the way to a rival to the firm's Suboxone Film opiod addiction treatment.
"The company is facing a mammoth struggle now," said Neil Wilson, a senior market analyst at ETX capital.
Other midcaps suffered blows including Greene King (L:GNK), down 4.5 percent after HSBC cut its rating on the stock and electronics retailer Dixons Carphone (LON:DC), which lost 4.3 percent after both Investec and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) took a more negative view on its prospects.
Miners, which had already helped the FTSE stay in positive territory in the previous session, were up with Glencore (L:GLEN) rising 1.4 percent, Antofagasta (L:ANTO) 1.2 percent and Rio Tinto (L:RIO) 0.4 percent.
Building materials firm CRH (L:CRH) was leading the index with a 1.6 percent rise.
Energy sector heavyweight BP (L:BP) rose 0.2 percent but Royal Dutch Shell (L:RDSa) retreated 0.1 percent.
A similar trend was visible for financials with HSBC (L:HSBA) and Standard Chartered (L:STAN) down as much as 0.2 percent while Lloyds (L:LLOY) edged 0.1 percent higher and Barclays (L:BARC) 0.6 percent.
Provident Financial (L:PFG), which made the headlines in August with a profit warning and the departure of its CEO Peter Crook, saw its shares fall 1.8 percent after Jeffries cut its recommendation from 'buy' to 'hold'.