London’s blue-chip index retreated modestly on Monday as weakness across mining, consumer and healthcare shares outweighed gains in financial and industrial stocks.
The FTSE 100 fell 13 points, or 0.1%, to 10,818, having touched a session low of 10,794 during morning trading.
The FTSE 250 declined 0.2% to around 24,540, while the AIM All-Share bucked the trend with a 0.3% gain and the FTSE SmallCap index was virtually unchanged.
Haleon led the blue-chip fallers with a 2.2% drop, followed by Fresnillo, which shed 2.1% as gold came under renewed pressure from rising bond yields.
Diageo, Entain and RELX each fell around 2%, adding to the downward pressure on the index during the session.
Admiral Group was among the brighter spots, rising 1.7%, while Melrose Industries, Diploma and Halma each advanced by more than 1%.
Standard Life rose 1.1% after reporting a 25% increase in first-half adjusted operating profit to £563 million, with operating cash generation climbing 6% and the interim dividend rising 2.6%.
Recruiters PageGroup and Hays fell 4.2% and 3.9% respectively, despite tentative signs of improvement emerging in the UK hiring market.
The latest KPMG and Recruitment and Employment Confederation survey showed permanent appointments increasing for the first time since September 2022, supported by gains in London and the Midlands.
Vacancies declined for a 34th consecutive month and candidate availability continued to rise, suggesting the labour market is stabilising rather than beginning a broad recovery ahead of the Bank of England’s 17 September decision.
Hollywood Bowl was the largest FTSE 250 faller, dropping 5.7%, while Ceres Power led the risers with a 4.4% gain and XP Power added 3.7%.
Harbour Energy and Hunting gained more than 2% as Brent crude traded above $97 a barrel following renewed US-Iran hostilities around the Strait of Hormuz.
Friday’s US employment report significantly complicated the interest-rate outlook heading into the new week for global investors.
Non-farm payrolls increased by 162,000 in August while unemployment held at 4.1%, far above forecasts of roughly 65,000 and reviving expectations of another Federal Reserve rate increase.
The S&P 500 lost 0.4% and the Dow fell 0.5% on Friday as Treasury yields moved higher in response to the stronger-than-expected jobs figures.
Average hourly earnings increased 0.3% during August and 3.1% from a year earlier, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, keeping inflation concerns firmly alive.
The strong jobs data pushed the estimated probability of a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase at its September meeting to approximately 58%, adding further pressure to rate-sensitive equities.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei gained around 1.7% and South Korea’s Kospi advanced 3.3%, led by semiconductor companies including Samsung Electronics (KRX: 005930) and SK Hynix, which rose 6.2%.
Spot gold fell 0.72% to $4,444.31 an ounce as higher interest-rate expectations made the non-yielding metal less attractive to investors seeking returns.
With Wall Street closed for Labour Day, oil prices, government bond yields and corporate newsflow were expected to drive the remainder of the London session.