Summary
Companies
FTSE 100 down 0.8%, FTSE 250 down 0.7%
Eli Lilly CEO criticizes UK’s drug pricing; pharma stocks down
Defence sector gains after Trump’s comments on Ukraine
JD Sports Fashion reports 13.5% fall in first-half profit
Sept 24 (Reuters) – London stocks were subdued on Wednesday, as investors assessed an overnight sell-off on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments and weighed corporate updates at home.
The benchmark FTSE 100 (.FTSE), opens new tab fell 0.08% at 0949 GMT, while the domestically focused FTSE 250 (.FTMC), opens new tab was down 0.07%.
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Wall Street’s main indexes fell overnight after Powell said the central bank needed to continue balancing the competing risks of high inflation and a weakening job market in coming interest rate decisions, which gave little indication about the future path of interest rates.
Still, investors expect the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates in its remaining two meetings of the year.
In corporate news, Eli Lilly (LLY.N), opens new tab Chief Executive Dave Ricks in an interview with the Financial Times said Britain was “probably the worst country in Europe” for drug prices.
The remarks are part of a broader backlash from pharmaceutical giants, including Merck (MRK.N), opens new tab and AstraZeneca (AZN.L), opens new tab, which have scaled back investments in Britain over the challenging environment.
UK’s pharma and biotech sector (.FTNMX201030), opens new tab fell 0.9% in early trading, with heavyweight AstraZeneca declining 1%.
The personal goods sub-sector (.FTNMX402040), opens new tab was the biggest loser, falling 2.7%, with shares of luxury firm Burberry (BRBY.L), opens new tab down 3.2%.
Among individual stocks, Britain’s JD Sports Fashion (JD.L), opens new tab reported a 13.5% fall in first-half profit. While sticking to its full-year guidance, the company also flagged ongoing caution over the trading backdrop. Shares of the British sportswear retailer was nearly flat in early trading.
Baltic Classifieds Group’s (BCG.L), opens new tab shares dropped the most in the FTSE 250, down 10.6%, after the company reported results below expectations.
Pinewood Technologies (PINE.L), opens new tab slipped 9.8% after the British auto retailer projected its 2025 EBITDA below analysts’ consensus, according to Berenberg.
On the flip side, aerospace and defence (.FTNMX502010), opens new tab rose 1% tracking gains in European peers after U.S. President Donald Trump, in a sudden and surprising rhetorical shift, said he believed Ukraine could retake all its land occupied by Russia.
Babcock International Group (BAB.L), opens new tab was the top FTSE 100 gainer, up 1.5%, while BAE Systems (BAES.L), opens new tab rose 1.4%.
Reporting by Sanchayaita Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel