FTSE 100 Retreats On Earnings Misses, Shop Price Inflation Surge

(RTTNews) - The U.K. stock market's benchmark index FTSE 100 fell on Tuesday as disappointing earnings from HSBC Holdings and Reckitt Benckiser hurt sentiment. A sharp increase in UK shop price inflation weighed as well.

The FTSE 100, which slid to 10,647.59 earlier, was down 81.65 points or 0.76% at 10,685.68 an hour past noon.

HSBC Holdings tumbled nearly 7% after pre-tax profit for the third-quarter came in at $9.63 million, less than analysts' expectations of $9.7 billion. The lender had posted a pre-tax profit of $7.30 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Profit after tax increased 38 percent to $7.57 billion from $5.50 billion a year ago. Earnings per share were $0.41, up from $0.28 last year.

The lender also said it intends to initiate a share buy-back of up to $1 billion, which is expected to be completed by 2026 full-year results announcement.

Reckitt Benckiser lost 4.7%. The consumer goods group cut its sales guidance for the year after third-quarter sales missed expectations due to an unexpected slowdown in the United States.

Intercontinental Hotels Group, Ithaca Energy, BP, Shell, Pearson, Burberry Group, Diageo, Natwest Group and British American Tobacco lost 1%-2%.

Antofagasta climbed 3.2%. Rentokil Initial and Pershing Square Holdings gained 2.8% and 2.5%, respectively. Rio Tinto, Polar Capital Technology Trust, Endeavour Mining, ICG, Anglo American Plc, Lion Finance, Barratt Redrow, Experian, Informa, Diploma, Coca-Cola HBC, Halma, Scottish Mortgage, Balfour Beatty, Aberdeen Group and Legal & General advanced 1%-2%.

Data from the British Retail Consortium showed UK shop price inflation accelerated to its highest level in two and a half years in October, climbing 2.1% year-on-year, faster than the 1.4% increase seen in September.

Non-food inflation advanced to 1.7% from 0.8%, while food inflation increased to 2.9% from 2.5% last month.