The London Stock Exchange Group offices are seen in the City of London, Britain, December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
Aug 3 (Reuters) – UK’s FTSE 100 opened lower on Thursday, with shares of London Stock Exchange Group weighing on the index, while investors awaited the Bank of England’s verdict on monetary policy tightening later in the day.
By 0710 GMT, the blue-chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE) fell 0.8%, hovering near a two-week low hit on Wednesday, while the more domestically-focussed FTSE 250 midcap index (.FTMC) lost 0.3%.
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG.L) lost 3.9% after its first-half profit before tax fell 17.6%.
Smith+Nephew (SN.L) slipped 3.2% after the medical products maker reported a 5% fall in trading profit for the six months to July 1, missing market expectations.
Also weighing was BT Group (BT.L), which fell 5.1% as shares of the telecom firm traded ex-dividend.
The BoE is expected to raise interest rates to a 15-year high of 5.25% from 5%, though there is a risk of a repeat of June’s surprise half-point increase as inflation remains the highest of the world’s major economies.
Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
