LONDON (dpa-AFX) - The UK market is trading lower on Wednesday, ahead of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's October meeting slated for release later in the day. Mining companies were under pressure.
Bank of England policymakers decided to leave its key rate at a historic low of 0.50 percent in a split vote for the fourth straight time at the meeting held on November 5 and 6, minutes showed.
As in the previous meetings, seven policymakers of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep the key interest rate at 0.50 percent while Ian McCafferty and Martin Weale sought a quarter point hike.
The European Central Bank said the Eurozone current account surplus increased in September on higher trade surplus. The current account surplus increased to a seasonally adjusted 30 billion euros in September from 22.8 billion euros in August.
The Bank of Japan maintained its massive monetary stimulus a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for an early election and put off a proposed sales tax hike. The Policy Board of the BoJ voted 8-1 to maintain the annual pace of increase in the monetary base at about 80 trillion yen.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is adding 0.03 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is falling 0.14 percent.
The FTSE 100 index is currently losing 0.18 percent.
Intertek is declining 7.5 percent. The provider of quality and safety services said its revenue for the 10-month period ended October 31 declined 5.1 percent as Sterling appreciated against all of the Group's currencies. The firm said it sees full-year margin to be broadly stable with that of 2013.
Royal Mail is declining close to 4 percent after first-half profit declined and the company warned of competition from Amazon's own delivery service.
Anglo American is losing 2.1 percent, while BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are declining 1.5 percent each.
Meanwhile, low-cost airline easyJet is gaining 1.7 percent and drugmaker AstraZeneca is adding 1.4 percent.
Other major markets in the region are mostly higher.
The Asian stocks retreated as falling commodity prices and profit taking after recent sharp gains took the shine off positive German economic sentiment data and hopes that Japan could herald fresh stimulus measure.
In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the Dow rose 0.2 percent and the S&P 500 gained half a percent to close at fresh record highs, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.7 percent to reach its best closing level since 2000.
Crude for January delivery is falling $0.18 to $74.46 per barrel, while gold is gaining $0.8 to $1197.9 a troy ounce.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX