Britain's FTSE 100 slips as Nvidia optimism fails to lift market

London’s FTSE 100 fell on Thursday as gains in technology shares, driven by AI bellwether Nvidia’s upbeat results, failed to offset weakness in other sectors.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell 0.5% to 10,820.66 points by 1000 a.m. GMT, while the midcap FTSE 250 slipped 0.04%.

Nvidia on Wednesday forecast a 70% jump in revenue next fiscal year, underscoring unabated demand for AI computing.

Technology shares led gains sectorally, up 1%.

On other hand, beverages, chemicals and REITs were the biggest decliner, falling between 1% and 1.6%.

“Nvidia’s resounding optimism gave a boost to UK tech-related stocks…It wasn’t enough to lift the FTSE 100 out of the doldrums,” said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.

Qatar’s prime minister visits Tehran on Thursday in a bid to relaunch diplomacy after the U.S. and Iran exchanged recriminations over Washington’s promise to increase economic pressure on Tehran by targeting its trade partners for sanctions.

Oil prices fell more than $1, extending a streak of losses, on expectations that talks between Iran and Qatar might open the Strait of Hormuz and reduce supply disruptions from the war in the Middle East.

Elsewhere, investors did not fully price in a quarter-point Bank of England rate hike until February 2027, with bond yields extending their gradual decline after a brief interruption in the previous session.

Attention is also on Warsh’s speech at Jackson Hole on Friday after hotter-than-expected inflation data prompted investors to modestly increase bets on a rate hike next month.

Among individual stocks, Britain’s Halfords jumped 12.6% to the top of the FTSE Midcap index after forecasting annual profit above market expectations.

Computacenter rose 4.7% to the top of the FTSE 100 after Peel Hunt upgraded the stock to “buy” from “add” and raised its price target to 6,000 pence from 4,400 pence.