(Reuters) -London stocks were subdued on Wednesday, as investors assessed an overnight sell-off on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments and weighed corporate updates at home.
The benchmark FTSE 100 fell 0.08% at 0949 GMT, while the domestically focused FTSE 250 was down 0.07%.
Wall Street’s main indexes fell overnight after Powell said the central bank needed to continue balancing the competing risks of high inflation and a weakening job market in coming interest rate decisions, which gave little indication about the future path of interest rates.
Still, investors expect the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates in its remaining two meetings of the year.
In corporate news, Eli Lilly Chief Executive Dave Ricks in an interview with the Financial Times said Britain was “probably the worst country in Europe” for drug prices.
The remarks are part of a broader backlash from pharmaceutical giants, including Merck and AstraZeneca, which have scaled back investments in Britain over the challenging environment.
UK’s pharma and biotech sector fell 0.9% in early trading, with heavyweight AstraZeneca declining 1%.
The personal goods sub-sector was the biggest loser, falling 2.7%, with shares of luxury firm Burberry down 3.2%.
Among individual stocks, Britain’s JD Sports Fashion reported a 13.5% fall in first-half profit. While sticking to its full-year guidance, the company also flagged ongoing caution over the trading backdrop. Shares of the British sportswear retailer was nearly flat in early trading.
Baltic Classifieds Group’s shares dropped the most in the FTSE 250, down 10.6%, after the company reported results below expectations.
Pinewood Technologies slipped 9.8% after the British auto retailer projected its 2025 EBITDA below analysts’ consensus, according to Berenberg.
On the flip side, aerospace and defence rose 1% tracking gains in European peers after U.S. President Donald Trump, in a sudden and surprising rhetorical shift, said he believed Ukraine could retake all its land occupied by Russia.
Babcock International Group was the top FTSE 100 gainer, up 1.5%, while BAE Systems rose 1.4%.
(Reporting by Sanchayaita Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
