By Khushi Singh and Bansari Mayur Kamdar
(Reuters) -Britain’s commodity-heavy FTSE 100 fell on Tuesday as miners weakened on soft metal prices, while luxury retailer Burberry hit an 11-month low following a ratings downgrade.
The FTSE 100 closed 0.5% lower, with the mining sector shedding 2.3% as the soaring dollar weighed on metal prices.
Miner Antofagasta fell 3.2% as copper prices hit a four-month low.
“As soon as we start to see some negative economic data news, the dollars gains can retrace quite quickly, but for now it does look like more upside in the dollar,” said Giles Coghlan, chief market analyst at HYCM.
The more domestically focused FTSE 250 dipped 1.7%, with Greggs sliding 4.1% after the baker and fast food chain maintained its full-year outlook.
Boohoo fell 2.8% as it slid to a loss after revenue fell 17% in its first-half and said a slower than expected recovery in sales volumes could result in little or no top-line improvement for the full year.
Burberry shed 3.6% after UBS downgraded the fashion retailer to “sell” from “neutral”, while the Vistry Group eased 6.1% as Jefferies cut the homebuilder’s rating to “hold” from “buy”.
Meanwhile, data showed prices in British store chains rose at the slowest pace in a year in September, suggesting that the UK’s inflation rate will continue to ease.
Annual shop price inflation cooled to 6.2% last month from 6.9% in August.
(Reporting by Khushi Singh and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Shounak Dasgupta)
