London’s blue chips headed lower as Wednesday’s session got underway, with the FTSE 100 dropping 17 points to sit at 8,749 in early dealings.
Antofagasta PLC led the early risers, climbing 2.5%, while Glencore PLC dropped 3.1% to head the fallers after underwhelming earnings.
HSBC Holdings PLC, which announced a US$2 billion buyback on full-year profit of US$32.3 billion, climbed by 0.6%.
Jet2 PLC fell over 9% on Wednesday as the airline signalled profit would be higher for the year but flagged growing cost pressures.
January’s jump in inflation will unlikely be too much of a worry for the Bank of England after a string of one-off factors fueled price rises, EY ITEM Club analysts have said.
The rise in the consumer price index from 2.5% to 3.0% in the year to January was largely driven by higher services inflation, analysts said, which had been “widely anticipated”.