© Reuters. Signage for the London Stock Exchange Group is seen outside of offices in Canary Wharf in London, Britain, August 3, 2023. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
By Shubham Batra and Sruthi Shankar
(Reuters) -The main UK stock indexes closed down on Thursday, hurt by losses on Wall Street after hotter-than-expected inflation data, while shares of Marks & Spencer fell despite better-than-expected holiday season sales.
The blue-chip fell 1.0%, after rising as much as 0.6% earlier when miners led gains.
The mood among U.S. and European investors soured after data showed December U.S. consumer prices increased more than expected, suggesting it was probably too soon for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates.
UK banks such as HSBC (LON:), Lloyds Banking Group (LON:) and Barclays (L:) fell between 3.1% and 4.6%, among the top drags on the FTSE 100.
“The US CPI report for December suggests that the last mile in the disinflationary process towards the Fed’s 2% inflation target will be bumpy,” Unicredit (BIT:) analysts noted.
“Overall, the December CPI report is consistent with our view that the Fed will not cut interest rates until June.”
Upmarket store Marks & Spencer reported a better-than-expected 8.1% rise in sales over the Christmas trading period but the stock, which has doubled over the past year, fell 5.2% following its cautious outlook.
“On the outlook, M&S (LON:) was more cautious, citing uncertainty around economic growth as well as higher-than-anticipated wage and business rate costs, and this uncertainty has prompted further weakness in the share price,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
Tesco (LON:) dipped 1.4% even as Britain’s No.1 supermarket chain upgraded its profit outlook for the second time in four months.
WPP (LON:) fell 4.0% after UBS downgraded the ad group’s stock to “sell” from “buy”, citing tepid cash flow levels.
The of UK midcap firms slid 0.9%.
Darktrace (LON:) climbed 9.0% as the cybersecurity company raised its forecast for annual revenue and core profit margins, as it bet on strong demand for its artificial intelligence-powered products.
