London stocks tread lower on global rate cut jitters

British stocks moved lower on Wednesday, mirroring a global market retreat as investors weighed chances of a more cautious approach to interest rate reductions. By 8:12 GMT, the internationally-exposed FTSE 100 had fallen 0.6%, and was set for its biggest one-day percentage drop in a month.

British stocks moved lower on Wednesday, mirroring a global market retreat as investors weighed chances of a more cautious approach to interest rate reductions.

By 8:12 GMT, the internationally-exposed FTSE 100 had fallen 0.6%, and was set for its biggest one-day percentage drop in a month. The more UK-centric FTSE 250 was off 0.4%. Wall Street shares fell on Tuesday as a recent pull back in rate cut bets weighed on investor sentiment.

"When the U.S. catches a bit of a cold, that it has done in the last couple of days, the rest of the world sort of gets pneumonia and there's very few places to hide," Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at eToro said. Later in the day, a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will be closely scrutinized for clues on his stance on interest rates landscape, while jobs data from the world's largest economy will also be on investor's radar through the week.

Eurozone inflation data for the month of March is due 0900 GMT. "UK investors are looking at European data as a prelude for what we may see in the UK later in the year," eToro's Laidler said.

Meanwhile, industry data showed British supermarket total sales rose year-over-year in the four weeks to March 23 as slowing inflation encouraged shoppers to increase purchases. In corporate updates, shares in Topps Tiles dropped 3% after the tile retailer flagged subdued demand in the domestic repair and maintenance sector in 2024, with lower volumes impacting its half-year profit.

Renishaw fell 4.1% after Germany's Siemens said it does not intend to make an offer for the engineering company.

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