UK’s FTSE 100 slipped on Monday, as losses in heavyweight energy and mining stocks chipped away on the commodities-heavy index, while cautious investors braced for a barrage of economic data throughout this week.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 fell 0.1%, but the more domestically-focussed FTSE 250 midcap index added 0.2%.
Heavyweight energy stocks eased 1.0%, tracking a fall in crude oil prices and industrial metal miners lost 0.4%.
“What we’ve seen before the Thanksgiving weekend is a market which is now pricing in this narrative that we won’t see any more rate hikes and instead we’ll start to see rate cuts as soon as May of next year, and that led to a lot of risk on sentiment,” said Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at IG Group.
“Usually after Thanksgiving, you tend to get some profit taking because the volumes were low, etc.”
The exporter-heavy FTSE 100 is on track for monthly gains as sentiment got a lift by hopes of a softer monetary policy globally heading into the next year, with expectations growing that perhaps interest rates have reached a peak.
FTSE 100 logs weekly fall despite late energy boost
Investors are now awaiting the UK mortgage data and the inflation prints across the eurozone and in the United States due later in the week.
Bucking the trend, precious metal miners added 1.6% as prices of most precious metals advanced, with gold prices touching a six-month peak.
Meanwhile, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said getting inflation down to the central bank’s 2% target would be “hard work”, as most of its recent fall was due to the unwinding of the jump in energy costs last year.
Entain lost 1.8% after Goldman Sachs downgraded the Ladbrokes-owner’s stock to “Sell” from “Buy”. Rightmove jumped 6.6% after UK’s largest property portal lifted its forecast for annual average revenue per advertiser.
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