(Reuters) – London stocks slipped on Monday, as lower commodity prices and political uncertainty in the United States weighed on risk appetite, while luxury retailer Burberry tanked to a 14-year low after scrapping its dividend payment.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.6%, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 was off 0.5%, as of 0717 GMT.
The pound weakened 0.2% versus the dollar, after hitting a nearly one-year high in the previous session.
Shares of Burberry tanked 10.7% after the company axed CEO Jonathan Akeroyd and warned on profit. The British retailer named former Michael Kors boss Joshua Schulman as its new chief executive.
The downbeat performance weighed on the personal goods sector, which hit its lowest levels since June 2010, leading to broader declines in the benchmark index.
Industrial metal miners dropped 1.3%, even though copper prices held their ground and countered pressure from a firmer dollar. [MET/L]
Political uncertainty in the U.S. sent jitters across global markets after an assassination attempt at presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday solidified the Republican’s winning bets.
“Investors will be assessing how the attempted assassination of Trump will reverberate for the U.S. presidential campaign. (Investor confidence) is likely to be taking another knock,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Data for UK consumer prices and producer prices will be in the limelight this week, as the Bank of England’s next monetary policy decision inches closer.
BoE’s interest rate-setter Swati Dhingra said British inflation was unlikely to rise sharply again and the central bank should bring down borrowing costs.
Investors are pricing in just over 50% chances of a rate cut at the August meeting. [0#BOEWATCH]
Among other individual stocks, shares of Robert Walters slumped 6% after the recruiter reported a fall in quarterly net fees amid macroeconomic and political uncertainties.
(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
