UK shares inch lower as subdued GDP data weighs

  • Reuters
  • Stock Market News
UK shares inch lower as subdued GDP data weighs

(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)

* FTSE 100 down 0.4%, FTSE 250 off 0.5%

March 12 (Reuters) - British shares fell on Friday, as data showed that the economy shrank by 2.9% in January, while drugmaker AstraZeneca fell after scaling back its vaccine supply forecast to the European Union.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index .FTSE slid 0.4%, with mining stocks, including Rio Tinto RIO.L , Anglo American (JO: AMSJ ) AAL.L and BHP Group (JO: BHPJ ) BHPB.L falling between 0.2% and 0.5%, hit by a drop in metal prices over demand concerns. MET/L

Oil heavyweights BP BP.L and Royal Dutch Shell RDSa.L were also among the laggards. O/R

Britain's economy shrank by a less severe than expected 2.9% in January from December as the country went back into a coronavirus lockdown and is likely to shrink by 4% in the first quarter of 2021, official data showed. domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index .FTMC fell 0.5%, dragged by industrials and consumer discretionary stocks.

Shopping centre operator Hammerson Plc HMSO.L jumped 8.1%, despite posting a 1.7 billion pound ($2.37 billion) loss for 2020, with the value of its portfolio slumping by nearly 2 billion pounds as the COVID-19 pandemic battered the retail sector. Plc AZN.L fell 0.6%, after cutting its supply forecast of COVID-19 vaccines to the European Union in the first quarter to about 30 million doses, a third of its contractual obligations and a 25% drop from pledges made last month.

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