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UK stocks are marginally down in lackluster trade on Wednesday as investors look for directional clues after recent gains following U.S. President Donald Trump deciding to pause the recently announced 50% tariffs on imports from EU, paving the way for further trade negotiations.<\/p>\n
The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 12.00 points or 0.14% at 8,767.05 a little while ago.<\/p>\n
Hikma Pharmaceuticals is gaining 2%. Pershing Square Holdings, Intermediate Capital Group, Endeavour Mining, Unite Group, Segro, Howden Joinery Group, Polar Capital Technology Trust, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Babcock International Group and Fresnillo are up 1 to 1.7%.<\/p>\n
Rentokil Initial is up 0.7% as it agreed to sell its French workwear division to H.I.G. Capital for gross proceeds of \u20ac410 million.<\/p>\n
Kingfisher is down more than 3% despite reporting higher Q1 sales and reaffirming guidance. The home improvement retailer reported that its first-quarter sales grew 1.6% from last year to 3.31 billion pounds. At constant currency rates, sales grew 2.2% and the increase was 1.8% on a like-for-like or LFL basis. Underlying total sales growth was 3.1%.<\/p>\n
Sainsbury (J) is down 2.5%, while 3i Group, Coca-Cola HBC, JD Sports Fashion, Diageo, Smith & Nephew, Aviva and National Grid are declining 0.8 to 1.7%. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n