The FTSE 100 slipped 0.16% on Wednesday to close at 10,480, as Associated British Foods, British American Tobacco and National Grid led the blue-chip decline. Mid-caps went the other way, with the FTSE 250 climbing 1.4%.
London's blue-chip index fell 17 points or 0.16% on Wednesday to close at 10,480, pulled down by a handful of heavyweight names even as the wider market held steady. The move capped a session split between falling large caps and a rallying mid-cap board.
What dragged the index
Associated British Foods led the fallers, down 3.15%, after the Primark owner said it expects annual profit to come in below last year's. British American Tobacco dropped 2.91% and National Grid fell 2.89%, rounding out the three biggest weights on the index.
The declines were not spread evenly. According to Reuters, healthcare shares dropped 1.6%, with AstraZeneca and GSK down 1.7% and 2.5%, while oil and gas names Shell and BP each fell over 2% as crude prices eased.
Rate worries and Iran talks
Behind the caution sat two threads. Investors watched a setback in U.S.-Iran talks after Iran said it would not meet top U.S. envoys, clouding the prospects of a peace agreement. At the same time, US rate-hike concerns weighed on European stocks, with the year-end Federal Reserve meeting in focus rather than July.
Those worries showed up in bond markets, where the 10-year Treasury yield traded at 4.47%, up from 4.40% a day earlier.
Mid-caps run the other way
The mid-cap board told a different story. The FTSE 250 jumped 1.4% to a one-week high and notched quarterly gains.
Some FTSE 100 names bucked the slide. Rightmove rose 5.27%, Babcock International added 5.17% and Frasers Group gained 4.87%, the session's top three gainers.
Sources: TradingView (snippet-based), MarketScreener (Reuters), Yahoo Finance UK
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