(Reuters) -British equities closed lower on Friday, weighed down by mining and real estate shares as investors took stock of a strong jobs report in the U.S. which eroded hopes of a September rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 slipped 0.5%, marking a fourth straight weekly loss, a streak last seen in 2020. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 0.8%, in its second straight weekly loss.
The U.S. nonfarm payrolls data showed that the economy created far more jobs than expected in May, reducing bets of a September cut by the Federal Reserve.
"We had a pretty strong reaction in markets to the data and that is feeding through into all the usual suspects, like a much stronger dollar and stocks are under a bit of pressure as a result of that," said Tim Graf, head of macro strategy EMEA at State Street.
The market saw broad declines with precious metal miners the top losers with a 5.2% decline, as spot gold prices fell more than 2%. [GOL/]
The sector logged its worst day in more than seven weeks.
Interest rate sensitive sectors including real estate and real estate investment trusts also fell more than 2% each.
Focus would now be on the Bank of England after the European Central Bank and the Bank of Canada announced their first rate cuts in this cycle earlier this week.
"All of these central banks act independently of the Fed, so (the jobs data) won't affect the BoE's trajectory. They are not priced to be doing anything in August; it's a pretty good chance to cut rates," Graf said.
C&C Group was the top loser on the mid-cap FTSE 250, with a 0.5% drop after the Irish drinks producer said Group CEO Patrick McMahon will step down with immediate effect after accounting errors in the last three years when he was CFO.
(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Andrew Heavens)
By Pranav Kashyap and Purvi Agarwal
