(Reuters) -UK stocks dipped on Friday, with IAG among the biggest drag, and were set to log losses for the week packed with earnings and a Bank of England interest rate decision.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index dropped 0.8% as of 1125 GMT, while the midcap index lost 0.5%.
Travel and leisure stocks declined 2.9%, with IAG sliding 8.4% after the British Airways owner flagged weakness in the U.S. market.
Rightmove plunged 12.5% as Britain’s biggest property portal warned of slower profit growth next year. The broader real estate sector lost 1.20%.
Heavyweight banks shed 0.7%. HSBC and Barclays fell about 1% each.
On the bright side, ITV jumped 13.9% as the broadcaster said it is in preliminary talks with Comcast-owned pay-TV company Sky over a 1.6 billion pound ($2.15 billion) sale of its media and entertainment division.
Among other UK assets, gilt yields were up slightly and the pound was headed for a third straight weekly fall. Earlier this week, the Bank of England kept its main lending rate steady at 4%.
Major brokerages including Morgan Stanley and Citigroup expect the central bank to deliver a rate cut in its December meeting.
Though headed for weekly losses, the FTSE 100 is among the best performing indexes across Europe. Global equities ran into turbulence this week as concerns over valuations of technology stocks and dimming chances of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in December hit sentiment.
Back in the UK, the Times reported that Finance Minister Rachel Reeves has told the country’s budget watchdog that a rise in personal taxation is among the “major measures” she is preparing to announce in her November 26 budget.
(Reporting by Utkarsh Tushar Hathi and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
