London stocks closed lower on Tuesday (January 31) as investors continued to trade cautiously ahead of major central banks’ monetary policy decisions this week. also affected the market.
The London Stock Exchange FTSE 100 closed at 7,771.70 points, down 13.17 points or -0.17%.
However, the FTSE 100 rose 4.2% in January, the biggest January percentage increase since 2013.
Banking and mining stocks, which are most sensitive to economic conditions, fell the most.
The IMF said Britain was the only G7 country to have its economic growth forecast cut for 2023, adding to pressure on British finance minister Jeremy Hunt over a stimulus plan.
The IMF expects the British economy to contract by 0.6% this year, down sharply from its previous forecast of 0.3% growth.
Financial markets were also under pressure from expectations that there was an 82.4% chance that the Bank of England (BoE) would raise interest rates by 0.50% at Thursday’s meeting. This will be the 10th consecutive interest rate hike.
