London shares weighed down by luxury stocks, downbeat US tech earnings

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By Purvi Agarwal and Roshan Abraham

(Reuters) -UK shares ended lower on Wednesday under pressure from weakness in luxury goods stocks and disappointing U.S. tech earnings, while Aston Martin surged after its half-yearly earnings update.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.2%, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 lost 0.7% to a near two-week low.

Quarterly earnings from U.S. megacap companies Alphabet and Tesla failed to impress investors, dampening risk appetite for investors globally.

In the UK, luxury group Burberry slipped 2% after the world’s biggest luxury group LVMH’s sales growth slowed in the second quarter.

“Weak results from LVMH and Remy Cointreau suggest the malaise in the luxury goods sector is yet to abate and this puts further pressure on battered British fashion brand Burberry,” Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell noted.

Aston Martin jumped 6.4%, recording its best day in nearly two months, after the luxury carmaker reported its half-yearly results.

Meanwhile, precious metal miners rebounded with a 3% rise, as gold prices firmed. [GOL/]

easyJet climbed 3% after the low-cost carrier reported a 16% rise in third-quarter pretax profit.

Ascential soared 25.7% to the top of the FTSE 250 after Informa said it had agreed to buy the Cannes Lions Festival owner for 1.2 billion pounds ($1.55 billion).

U.S. inflation data, due Friday, will be watched to gauge the Federal Reserve’s stance on interest rate cuts as the central bank’s next policy decision edges closer.

($1 = 0.7738 pounds)

(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Roshan Abraham in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng and Jane Merriman)