UK stocks slip as BoE holds rates, Fed hawkishness dents sentiment

Tesco

Today 13:53

FTSE 100 down 0.9%, FTMC down 0.8%
Tesco falls on weak Q1 sales growth
Intertek up after agreeing EQT takeover
BoE holds rate steady as expected
Updates after BoE decision; adds details, and analyst comments

    June 18 (Reuters) - UK's main stock indexes retreated on Thursday, pressured by miners and financials, after the Bank of England held steady on interest rates, while the Federal Reserve's hawkish stance also weighed on sentiment.

    The BoE kept 
    rates on hold
     at 3.75% as widely expected, with only two of the nine member committee voting in favour of a rate hike amid persistent inflation concerns. 
  

    The U.S. Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged on Wednesday, though nine Fed policymakers 
    projected a rate hike
     this year. 
  

    "The conditions don’t seem in place for sustained inflationary pressure. So we think the BoE will be able to avoid the kind of monetary tightening that the European Central Bank has already started to deliver and that the Fed hinted at last night," said Luke Bartholomew, deputy chief economist, at Aberdeen.
  
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index .FTSE fell 0.87% to 10,416.89 points by 1345 GMT, while the midcap FTSE 250 .FTMC slipped 0.8%.
Precious metal miners .FTNMX551030 declined the most, as gold and silver prices eased. Fresnillo  FRES.L and Hocschild Mining HOCM.L fell 6% and 8%, respectively.
London Stock Exchange LSEG.L fell 5.8% after Rothschild Redburn downgraded the stock to "neutral", while investment firm 3i Group III.L declined 4%.
Rate-sensitive homebuilders .FTNMX402020 shed 2.4%, with Persimmon PSN.L falling 6.2%, among the worst performers on the benchmark.
Heavyweight banks .FTNMX301010 were least impacted, with HSBC HSBA.L and Barclays BARC.L down marginally at 0.2% each. 
UK's biggest food retailer Tesco TSCO.L slipped 1.6% after reporting a slowdown in first-quarter sales growth. 
Intertek ITRK.L gained 1.5% after the testing and certification firm agreed to a takeover by Swedish private equity firm EQT EQTAB.ST

        The world's largest exhibition group Informa INF.L was the top performer on FTSE 100, rising 2.5% after forecasting stronger growth in 2027.
Oil giants BP BP.L and Shell SHEL.L declined 1.6% each, as oil prices reached to their lowest since start of Iran war. O/R

 (Reporting by Utkarsh Hathi in Bengaluru, Additional reporting by Sophie Kiderlin in London; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
 ((utkarshtushar.hathi@thomsonreuters.com))