The U.K. stock market is down marginally a little before noon on Wednesday with investors largely making cautious moves after five successive days of gains. The focus is on the Federal Reserves monetary policy announcement due later in the day, and the Bank of Englands monetary policy meeting on Thursday.
The Fed and the BoE are widely expected to hold their rates unchanged. The focus is on the central banks views about the outlook for growth and future policy moves.
The benchmark FTSE 100 is down 25.39 points or 0.29% at 8,679.84 nearly half an hour before noon.
Compass Group is down nearly 3%. Sainsbury (J), Fresnillo, Tesco, Schroders, Bunzl, Glencore, GSK, Croda International, Next, Standard Chartered, Anglo American Plc and Smith & Nephew are down 1 to 2%.
Rio Tinto is modestly lower. The miner has urged shareholders to vote against London-based hedge fund Palliser Capitals resolution to review the firms two listings in London and Sydney.
Airlines stocks IAG, EasyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air are down due to the collapse of Israel-Hamas ceasefire, and the ongoing fighting in Ukraine.
M&G is rising 3.2%. Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Games Workshop, Pershing Square Holdings, Melrose Industries, Informa, Shell, Whitbread, F&C Investment Trust and Kingfisher are gaining 1 to 1.6%.
