FTSE 100 Drifts Lower In Cautious Trading Ahead Of BoE Announcement

(RTTNews) - UK stocks are showing weakness Thursday morning, with investors largely making cautious moves ahead of Bank of England's monetary policy announcement.

The BoE is widely expected to hold rates at 3.75%. The central bank's views on the economy will be in focus.

The European Central Bank, which is also scheduled to announce its policy today, is expected to hold rates unchanged.

The FTSE 100 was down 56.59 points or 0.55% at 10,345.99 about a quarter before noon.

Shell drifted lower after reporting earnings that fell short of expectations. The company has announced another $3.5 billion share buyback.

LSEG is climbing up 6.3%. Relx, Experian, Pershing Square Holdings, Standard Chartered, The Sage Group, Weir Group, GSK, Smiths Group, Halma, Haleon, British American Tobacco and Informa are gaining 1%-2.5%.

Vodafone Group is down 6.5%. Vodafone Group is down 6.5% after the company's organic service revnues fell below forecasts for the UK and Germany. Vodafone Group PLC said it expects to deliver at the upper end of its profit and cash flow targets for the year, even as service revenue in key markets missed expectations for the third quarter.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Persimmon, Entain, Barratt Redrow, Fresnillo, Segro, LondonMetric Property, Lloyds Banking Group and Kingfisher are down 3%-5%.

British Land, Natwest Group, Land Securities, Marks & Spencer, United Utilities, SSE, Aviva and Sainsbury (J) are also sharply lower.

In economic news, the downturn in the UK construction sector slowed at the start of the year, survey data from S&P Global revealed Thursday.

The construction Purchasing Managers' Index registered 46.4 in January, up from December's five-and-a-half year low of 40.1. The score was well above economists' forecast of 42.2.

The latest reading was the highest since June 2025. However, the score remained below the 50.0 no-change value for the thirteenth month in a row.