London Stocks Slip Amid Global Cyber Outage and Weak Retail Sales

London stocks ended the week lower due to a global cyber outage and a drop in domestic retail sales for June. Both the blue-chip FTSE 100 and mid-cap FTSE 250 indexes saw declines, snapping a two-week winning streak. Commodities and retail stocks followed the downward trend.

London stocks concluded the week on a lower note, impacted by a global cyber outage on Friday. Investors also assessed a fall in domestic retail sales for June, which contributed to the decline in commodity-linked stocks as prices for copper, gold, and other metals dropped. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index recorded a 0.6% decline, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 fell by 0.8%, ending their two-week streak of consecutive gains.

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) announced that its Workspace news and data platform, along with its regulatory news service and currency spot and forward prices, were affected by the outage stemming from a 'third-party global technical issue.' However, by midday most of the issues appeared to be resolved, and securities trading on the London Stock Exchange remained unaffected.

Mining stocks impacted the blue-chip index significantly as precious and base metal prices fell due to weaker demand from China and expectations of a U.S. interest rate cut in September. Precious metal miners, including Fresnillo, saw declines, with Fresnillo specifically falling 1.4%. Industrial metal miners also dropped, reflecting a broader decline in copper prices. In contrast, aerospace and defense stocks saw a slight gain after British defense firms met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss increased military support. Retail sales showed a larger than expected drop, which raised the likelihood of an August interest rate cut. Personal goods and retail stocks also fell, contributing to the overall market decline.

(With inputs from agencies.)