Market Movers: Halma's Surge and Crest Nicholson's Plunge

British stocks edged lower on Thursday as the U.S. Federal Reserve projected fewer rate cuts this year, though corporate updates limited losses. Notable movers included Halma, which jumped 8.9% after beating revenue estimates, and Crest Nicholson, which slumped 8.1% following a profit warning.

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FTSE 100 down 0.2%, FTSE 250 off 0.4% *

Halma jumps after full-year revenue, core profit beat *

BT up after Mexican magnate Carlos Slim takes stake *

Crest Nicholson slumps after annual profit warning (Updated at 0806 GMT)

By Pranav Kashyap June 13 (Reuters) -

British stocks edged lower on Thursday as the U.S. Federal Reserve projected fewer rate cuts this year, although a slew of corporate updates limited further losses. The blue-chip FTSE 100 was down 0.2% after seeing their best day in over a month in the previous session.

The mid-cap FTSE 250 dipped 0.4%. The Fed kept rates

unchanged on Wednesday, as expected, but pushed out the start of rate cuts to perhaps as late as December.

Additionally, data showed U.S. consumer prices were unexpectedly unchanged in May. Despite this, Fed officials revised their interest rate reduction forecast to just one quarter-point cut this year. U.S. producer price figures later in the day will also draw significant attention.

The Bank of England meets next Thursday to take a call on borrowing costs. "The Fed dot plot suggests rates staying higher for longer, but the Bank of England is likely to cut earlier and a bit more aggressively than the U.S. because the UK economy has bottomed out," said Thomas Gehlen, senior market strategist at SG Kleinwort Hambros.

Among individual stocks, Halma jumped 8.9% after the technology firm beat estimates for full-year revenue and core profit. BT was up 2.2% after Mexican magnate Carlos Slim took a 3.16% stake in Britain's biggest broadband and mobile operator.

Legal & General edged up 1.6% after Patron Capital Partners emerged as one of the bidders for the life insurer's housebuilder CALA, in a deal expected to raise around one billion pounds ($1.28 billion). On the flipside, Crest Nicholson slumped 8.1% after the housebuilder warned its annual profit would fall by about one-third and reported an 88% slump in half-year earnings.

Investors have also been on guard this week as political uncertainty has rattled sentiment across Europe. "Severe uncertainty was triggered by the political announcements in France. However, investors should be careful to distinguish between the noise from political uncertainty and the actual fundamentals of economic change" Gelhen added.