FTSE Modestly Lower In Cautious Trade
(RTTNews) - The U.K. market is modestly lower on Wednesday as investors largely tread cautiously, digesting earnings and regional economic data, and awaiting the monetary policy announcements from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England.
While the U.S. central bank is widely expected to hold rates later today, the BoE, which is scheduled to announce its monetary policy on Thursday, is likely to lower interest rates by 25 basis points.
On the trade front, UK and US officials are reportedly in intensive talks to reach a new economic deal to ease tariffs and reduce trade frictions.
The benchmark FTSE 100 is down 24.05 points or 0.28% at 8,573.37 about a quarter to noon.
GSK and BT Group are down 4.2% and 3.4%, respectively. Vodafone Group, St. James's Place, Segro, AstraZeneca, LondonMetric Property, Associated British Foods, Convatec Group, Next, Kingfisher, Rentokil Initial, BP and Hikma Pharmaceuticals are down 1 to 2.5%.
Entain is rising more than 2.5%. Glencore, Imperial Brands, Prudential, Bunzl, JD Sports Fashion, Diageo, IAG, Pershing Square Holdings, Croda International, Schroders, Rio Tinto, Anglo American Plc., and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners are up 1 to 2%.
On the economic front, the S&P Global UK Construction PMI rose to 46.6 in April 2025 from 46.4 in March, the fourth straight month of contraction.
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