FTSE 100 Little Changed In Lackluster Trade

U.K. stocks struggled for direction on Monday as last week’s strong U.S. jobs report fueled bets for a smaller rate cut by the Federal Reserve in November.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was little changed with a negative bias at 8,273 after finishing marginally lower on Friday.

Rio Tinto edged down slightly. According to a report by Reuters, the mining company has been holding talks to buy lithium miner Arcadium Lithium plc (ALTM), in a potential deal, valuing the latter in a range of $4 billion to $6 billion or higher.

Engineering Services firm Renew Holdings was marginally lower after an announcement that it has acquired Full Circle Group Holding B.V., a Dutch specialist provider of repair, maintenance and monitoring services for onshore wind turbines in the UK and Europe, for a total cash consideration of 60.0 million euros or 50.5 million pounds.

3i Infrastructure gained about 1 percent after it received a binding offer for its approximately 33 percent stake in Valorem, an independent European renewable energy developer and power producer, from funds managed by AIP Management P/S and from certain other co-investors.

Sirius Real Estate dropped 1.1 percent. The property company that owns and operates branded business and industrial parks said its rent roll for the first half increased 14.9 percent from last year, partly helped by the ongoing asset acquisition programme.

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