FTSE 100 Up Slightly In Cautious Trade

(RTTNews) - The UK stock market's benchmark index FTSE 100 was hovering around the flat line about half an hour before noon on Wednesday with investors digesting the nation's inflation data while looking ahead to monetary policy announcements from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the signing of the Iran-US peace deal.

The Bank of England is set to announce its policy decision on June 18. The BoE is widely expected to hold the rate at 3.75%, the lowest since June 2023. Previously, the bank had reduced the rate by 25 basis points each in August and November 2025.

The FTSE 100 was up 5.95 points or 0.06% at 10,500.16 a little while ago.

Weir Group, the top gainer in the benchmark index, was up nearly 3%. Barclays moved up 2.3%, while Spirax Group climbed 1.7%.

Berkeley Group Holdings, 3i Group, AutoTrader Group, Standard Chartered, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Barratt Redrow, The Sage Groiup, Melrose Industries, Persimmon and Antofagasta gained 1%-1.6%.

British American Tobacco shed 2.1%. Entain, Rio Tinto, Halma, Airtel Africa, Centrica, BT Group and Associated British Foods drifted down by 1.5%-2%.

Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury (J), LondonmetricProperty, Compass Group, Imperial Brands, Mondi, Convatec Group, National Grid and Tesco also were down with notable losses.

Data from the office for National Statistics showed consumer prices in UK registered an annual increase of 2.8% in May, the same rate as seen in April. Prices were expected to climb 3%. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.2% in May, slower than the 0.7% increase in April.

Meanwhile, core inflation rose to 2.6% from 2.5% in the previous month. Nonetheless, the rate was slightly below forecast of 2.7%.

Factory gate inflation slowed marginally to 4% in May from 4.1% a month ago, the ONS said in a separate report.

On the other hand, input price inflation accelerated to the highest since February 2023. Input prices grew 8.7% after rising 7.9% in April.

On a monthly basis, output prices climbed 0.5%, slower than the 1.5% rise in April. At the same time, input prices gained only 0.2%, following April's 2.6% increase.