The London Stock Exchange Group offices are seen in the City of London, Britain, December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
Oct 12 (Reuters) – London’s FTSE 100 index fell on Tuesday, led by declines in heavyweight mining and banking stocks, as sentiment was weighed by higher energy costs, supply chain disruptions and an imminent rate hike that could affect quarterly corporate performance.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index (.FTSE) declined 1% at 0710 GMT, with miners Rio Tinto (RIO.L), Anglo American (AAL.L) and BHP Group (BHPB.L) falling between 1.2% and 2.3%.
Industrial (.FTNMX551020) and precious metal miners (.FTNMX551030) fell about 1% each, and banks (.FTNMX301010), (.FTNMX301010) fell 1.5%.
The domestically focussed mid-cap index (.FTMC) declined 0.8%, with capital goods stocks among the worst performers.
Payments specialist Equiniti (EQN.L), which is being bought by New York-based company Siris Capital, could face some job cuts once the deal is closed, the private equity firm said late on Monday. Its shares rose 0.5%.
On the macro front, UK’s labour market showed signs of further recovery as employers added a record-high 207,000 staff to their payrolls in September and separate data showed UK’s unemployment rate fell to 4.5% in the three months to August, reinforcing bets for a sooner Bank of England rate hike. read more
Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel
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