FTSE 100 Up Marginally In Cautious Trade
(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks are quite subdued in cautious trade Wednesday morning as investors await the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later in the day.
The Fed is widely expected to hold rates and the focus is on the accompanying statement for clues about the central bank's moves in the coming months.
The benchmark FTSE 100, moving in a tight band between 8,520.53 and 9,551.54, was up 14.67 or 0.17% at 8,548.54 a little while ago.
Among the gainers, shares of travel retailer WH Smith are up 7% after the company reported higher revenue growth for the 21-week period ended January 31.
Fresnillo is rising 2.3%. The precious metals miner met guidance with silver output in 2024 and marginally beat expectations with gold production.
Beazley and IAG are up more 2.7% and 2.5%, respectively. Scottish Mortgage is rising 2.1% and Rentokil Initial is up nearly 2%.
United Utilities, Barclays Group, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Marks & Spencer, Prudential, Natwest Group, Halma, Ashtead, British Land Company, Admiral Group, Diploma, LondonMetric Property, Weir Holdings and Next are up 1 to 1.8%.
BAE Systems is declining nearly 3%. Glencore and BP are down 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively. Diageo is down 1.3%, hurt by weak earnings updates from French luxury major LVMH.
Hiscox, Shell,Haleon, British American Tobacco and SSE are also notably lower.
Shares of financial services company AJ Bell are down 1.85% despite the company reporting record assets of 89.5 billion pounds.
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