UK stocks kick off week lower

26 Sep, 2023

LONDON: UK stocks fell on Monday, in a grim start to the last week of the quarter, while Ladbrokes owner Entain tumbled to a three-year low after warning of a decline in online gaming sales.

The exporter-heavy FTSE 100 fell 0.8% to its lowest level in over a week, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 slid 1.0%.

Entain dropped 13.1% after saying it expects online net gaming revenue for the third quarter and full year to decline amid ongoing regulatory issues in Britain and slower growth in Australia and Italy.

The travel and leisure index that houses the gambling firm dropped 3.5%.

With a week left until the third quarter ends, both the FTSE indexes are headed for gains as investors take comfort from signs of cooling inflation that prompted the Bank of England to steer clear of an interest rate hike last week. “It’s generally accepted that they’re (BoE) not out of the woods yet, but it was a positive sign from a market’s point of view to see an end to that consecutive raising of interest rates, said Christopher Peters, trading floor manager at Accendo Markets.

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