The UK’s FTSE 100 was flat on Tuesday as miners fell amid a weak Chinese demand outlook, but healthcare stocks rose after the previous day’s drop.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE) remained at 7532.5 points, while the midcap FTSE 250 (.FTMC) gained 0.3%. Industrial metal miners (.FTNMX551020) fell 0.6% as dismal Chinese economic data raised demand fears.
After JP Morgan dropped its price target on all eight constituents, signaling a sales slowdown, the homebuilder’s index (.FTNMX402020) slumped 0.6%.
Taylor Wimpey, Vistry Group, and Barratt Developments declined 0.7%–1.1%.
AstraZeneca (AZN.L) rallied, lifting the pharmaceuticals and biotech sector (.FTNMX201030) by 0.8%. Monday’s index drop exceeded 5%.
Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L), Britain’s second-largest grocery chain, fell 1.6% after quarterly results, with one analyst citing competition issues.
After Ryanair (RYA.I) announced record June traffic, the UK’s main airlines’ travel and leisure sector (.FTNMX405010) gained 0.4%.
After a 22.5% passenger rise in June, Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ.L) rose 1.5%, boosting the index.
Dunelm Group (DNLM.L) fell 5.5% after RBC downgraded it to “underperform” from “sector perform.”
Concerns about a global economic downturn and rising inflation have kept the commodities-heavy FTSE 100 unchanged this year.
“You would expect the Bank of England to put through some more rate rises yet, but we are in some way approaching a peak,” said Martin Currie, co-head of UK equities Ben Russon.
“We are very much dependent on inflation data from here and mathematically, you should see some respite.”
Wall Street was closed for Independence Day, so trading should be modest.
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