London stocks fall as investors await more data; Rolls-Royce shines

UK’s FTSE 100 fell on Tuesday amid a broad-based selloff as investors awaited a slew of global economic data due later this week, while Rolls-Royce (LON:RR) shares outperformed after the engineering company forecast a surge in its profitability.

The exporter-heavy FTSE 100 fell 0.6% touching a two-week low intraday, while the more domestically-oriented FTSE 250 midcap index also shed 0.6%.

Personal goods led declines among the major FTSE 350 sectors, with Burberry Group (LON:BRBY) falling 2.7% after HSBC (LON:HSBA) reduced the stock’s price target.

“It’s worth reminding ourselves that (for) the last couple of weeks, markets have been quite strong with the expectation that inflation’s finally starting to come off in most places,” said Andrew Jones, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors.

“Rather than being any specifically negative news coming out… (its) a bit of a pause having had (that) rally.”

Rolls-Royce jumped 6.2% to a more than four-year high after the engineering company said it aimed to become a much more profitable business.

Despite recent weakness, both the benchmark stock indexes eye monthly gains as sentiment got a lift from hopes of a softer monetary policy globally, with rising bets that interest rates have peaked.

Investors will look ahead to UK mortgage data, inflation prints across the eurozone, and a Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report in the U.S. – the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge – later this week.

Bank of England’s Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said Britain’s monetary policy is likely to need to be “restrictive” for an extended period of time to get inflation back to the central bank’s 2% target.

BoE’s Jonathan Haskel is also scheduled to deliver a speech later in the day.

Pearson (LON:PSON) lost 2.3% after Exane BNP Paribas (EPA:BNPP) downgraded the education company’s stock to “Neutral” from “Outperform”.

Man Group fell 3.2% after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) downgraded the hedge fund manager’s stock to “Equal-Weight” from “Overweight”.