The UK’s FTSE 100 started the week on a sombre note on Monday, as fading hopes of interest rate cuts by global central banks weighed on sentiment, although the gains in AstraZeneca on the US FDA approval’s for its lung cancer drug capped losses.
The blue-chip index edged down 0.1%, as of 0813 GMT.
Market sentiment was down as investors reassessed their rate cut bets, with money markets now pricing in around 65 basis point (bp) cut from the Bank of England (BoE) this year, compared with around 72 bps last week.
BoE chief economist Huw Pill said on Friday that so far he had seen only “quite modest and tentative evidence” that inflation would fall back to and stay at the central bank’s 2% target.
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AstraZeneca, however, rose 3.0% after a combination of the drugmaker’s cancer drug Tagrisso with chemotherapy to treat a type of lung cancer was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on Friday.
Meanwhile, the mid-cap FTSE 250 added 0.1%, led by a 31.5% advance in Currys after Chinese e-commerce group JD.com said it is in the “very preliminary stages” of evaluating a possible offer for the British electricals retailer.
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