By Ankika Biswas and Shashwat Chauhan
(Reuters) -British equities slipped on Wednesday as homebuilders dipped on dismal domestic housing price data, while speciality chemicals group Croda International dropped following a rating downgrade.
The resources-heavy FTSE 100 edged 0.1% lower, while the domestically-focused FTSE 250 midcap index fell 0.3%.
British house prices dropped on an annual basis in May for the first time in 11 years, mortgage lender Halifax said, prompting a 1.1% decline in homebuilders’ stocks.
“House builders are reining back the amount that they’re building … there is a great deal of uncertainty around where interest rates are going over the next year,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.
“All this has created huge amounts of volatility within the mortgage sector and that can’t help but have a knock on consumer sentiment.”
Chemicals stocks bore the brunt of the selling pressure, falling 1.2%, pressured by a 2.0% drop in Croda International after Goldman Sachs lowered its rating on the stock to “neutral” from “buy”.
Bucking the trend, industrial metal miners added 0.5%, tracking a rally in copper prices on hopes that top-consumer China will inject more stimulus into its economy. [MET/L]
UK retailers gained 0.1% after a strong update from Zara-owner Inditex.
Among individual movers, Harbour Energy rose 2.6% after Reuters reported that the country’s largest North Sea oil and gas producer is in talks to merge with Gulf of Mexico peer Talos Energy.
Vodafone gained 2% after Reuters reported the company and Hutchison are in the final stages of a merger agreement for their British operations.
Meanwhile, forecasts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development revealed that Britain will have the highest inflation of any leading economy in 2023 and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will miss his promise to halve price growth this year.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza, Janane Venkatraman, William Maclean)
