By Shashwat Chauhan
(Reuters) -Britain’s FTSE 100 closed marginally higher on Tuesday, paring early gains as mixed U.S inflation data did little to soothe concerns about further Fed tightening, while strong gains by Vodafone drove other telecom stocks higher too.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed up 0.08% after hitting a record high during the session, while the FTSE 250 midcap index dropped 0.5%.
U.S. consumer inflation accelerated in January, stoking expectations that the Federal Reserve is far from pausing its interest rate hiking cycle. The monthly reading was 0.5% from 0.1% in December.
“Stickier inflation would …encourage the U.S, Fed to keep applying the brakes through higher interest rates and to hold their foot down on the pedal for longer,” said Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at AJ Bell.
Vodafone gained 3.4% after Liberty Global, which owns half of rival Virgin Media O2, said it had bought a near-5% stake in the telecoms operator.
The broader telecoms sector index gained 3.0%.
Travel and leisure stocks rose 1%, with Easyjet gaining 3.9% after Deutsche Bank raised its rating on the airline to “buy”.
TUI was up 0.6%, rising as much as 4.4% earlier in the session after the travel group said it was seeing a signs of a recovery.
Soft drinks bottler Coca-Cola HBC AG jumped 4.9% after reporting a better-than-expected full-year operating profit.
Data showed the pace of growth in basic pay in Britain sped up again in the last three months of 2022, while the domestic unemployment rate held steady in the three months to December.
Finance minister Jeremy Hunt said the figures signalled resilience in the labour market.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Shristi Achar A and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; editing by Eileen Soreng, Savio D’Souza)
