Miners, homebuilders drag UK's FTSE 100 lower
UK's FTSE 100 edged lower on Monday as base metal miners lost ground on weak copper prices, while declines in homebuilders following the UK antitrust watchdog's investigation into the sector further pressured equities.
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UNITED KINGDOM: * Wincanton hits record high on sweetened buyout offer * Bunzl drops on 2024 operating margin warning * FTSE 100 down 0.2%, FTSE 250 off 0.1% (Updated at 0911 GMT) By Shristi Achar A Feb 26 (Reuters) - UK's FTSE 100 edged lower on Monday as base metal miners lost ground on weak copper prices, while declines in homebuilders following the UK antitrust watchdog's investigation into the sector further pressured equities. The resource-heavy FTSE 100 index was down 0.2% as of 0911 GMT, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 slipped 0.1%.
Industrial metal miners fell 1.8%, tracking declines in copper prices on the back of a firmer dollar and rising inventories in top consumer China. Homebuilders lost 1% after the Competition and Markets Authority said Britain's housebuilding market has fundamental problems that are preventing more homes from being built as it launched an investigation to see if commercially sensitive information was being shared.
The problem has been around for years and successive governments have introduced schemes to boost the number of new homes and make them more affordable to first-time buyers, said Stuart Cole, chief macro economist at Equiti Capital. "The fact the problem still exists after all these various measures meant it was becoming something of an albatross around the heads of governments and so the CMA finally acted."
Losses were limited as lender Standard Chartered gained 2.4%, up for the third straight session, as at least three brokerages raised their price targets on the stock. Waning bets of a rate cut from the Bank of England pushed the FTSE 100 lower last week, with consumer prices data from the U.S. and Europe later in the week further testing the sentiment.
Investors now await comments from BoE chief economist Huw Pill, due later in the day, for clues regarding the timing of interest rate cuts. Among other stocks, Wincanton jumped 11.2% and notched an all-time high after CEVA Logistics, a unit of French shipping firm CMA CGM, raised its offer to buy the firm to about 604.7 million pounds ($766.2 million).
Bunzl slid 4.8% to the bottom of the blue-chip index after the business supplies distributor warned that its operating margin this year would be slightly below 2023 levels.
