FTSE 100 Down Marginally As Investors Focus On Inflation Data, Earnings

(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks are marginally down on Wednesday amid concerns over an impasse in Russia-Ukraine peace talks, a lack of progress in trade negotiations, and data showing an acceleration in British consumer price inflation in the month of April.

Investors are also reacting to some corporate earnings announcements.

The benchmark FTSE 100 is down 6.75 points or 0.08% at 8,774.37 a few minutes before noon.

SSE plc shares are up nearly 1% after the company reported pretax profit of 1.85 billion pounds for the year ended 31 March 2025 compared to 2.50 billion pounds, prior year. Earnings per share was 108.1 pence compared to 156.5 pence.

Shares of drug firm AstraZeneca are up 0.85% after the company announced that it has successfully completed the acquisition of EsoBiotec.

Close Brothers shares are down more than 5% after the loan book decreased 0.9% in the third quarter and 3.5% year-to-date to 9.7 billion pounds in its banking division.

Severn Trent is gaining 2.5%, as the water utility delivered strong annual profit growth and said it expects EPS to double by 2028.

Sportswear retailer JD Sports Fashion is down nearly 8% after reporting lower annual profit.

Marks & Spencer, which declined earlier in the session after projecting a 300-million-pound loss due to a recent cyberattack, has recovered well and is currently up nearly 2%.

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed data from the Office for National Statistics showed UK's consumer price index rose 3.5% year-on-year in April, faster than the 2.6% increase in March. Inflation was expected to rise to 3.3%.

On a monthly basis, the CPI advanced at a faster pace of 1.2% after rising 0.3% in March. This was also faster than the forecast of 1.1%.

Core inflation that excludes prices of energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, rose to 3.8% from 3.4% in March.

Prices of goods grew 1.7% annually after rising 0.6%. Likewise, services inflation rose to 5.4% from 4.7%.