British stocks end lower as energy shares drag, China stimulus boost fades

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By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Shubham Batra

(Reuters) -The UK’s main stock indexes ended Wednesday on a downbeat note, hurt by energy shares tracking lower oil prices, while miners kept the losses in check as gold soared to a record high on expectations of another big rate cut by the U.S. central bank.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 was down 0.2%, while the midcap FTSE 250 edged 0.1% lower. The benchmark index got it biggest boost on Tuesday after China released a raft of stimulus measures.

However, the optimism faded as market watchers questioned whether the scope of proposed measures was sufficient to fix deep-rooted issues in China and spark a sustained resurgence in consumer and industrial demand.

Even China’s central bank reducing its medium-term loan rate on Wednesday did little to lift sentiment again.

“Monetary policy remains unlikely to move the needle on Chinese growth… The Chinese economy needs fiscal stimulus and monetary policy alone isn’t sufficient to revive domestic demand,” analysts at BCA Research said in a note.

The biggest sector hurt by this sentiment was oil and gas, which slid 1.8%, but the pullback in UK equities was driven by the beverage sector’s near 1.7% drop.

The banking and life insurance sectors lost about 1.2% and 1.5%, respectively.

However, industrial miners and precious metal miners built on gains from the previous session, rising 0.8% and 3%, respectively, as prices of copper and gold continued to rise.

Among other movers, real estate portal Rightmove lost 1.6% after rejecting a sweetened $8.1 billion takeover proposal from Australia’s REA Group, saying the increased bid was still “unattractive”.

Retailer DFS Furniture dipped earlier in the session after posting a 65.7% slump in annual profit but the shares reversed course and ended the session with a 6.6% jump.

(Reporting by Lisa Mattackal and Shubham Batra in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Gareth Jones)