LONDON: British shares slipped on Wednesday, dragged by miners and energy stocks, as investors awaited the outcome of a US Federal Reserve policy meeting to get cues about interest rates.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.4%, with mining stocks, including Rio Tinto, Anglo American, and BHP Group, falling between 0.5% and 1%.

Oil heavyweights BP and Royal Dutch Shell were also among the laggards.

The FTSE 100 has rebounded more than 38% from a coronavirus-driven crash last year, but the pace of gains has slowed recently on fears a vaccine-led economic recovery could lead to higher inflation.

The domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index fell 0.7%, dragged by consumer discretionary and industrials stocks. Retail investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown rose 1.1%, as it expects its profit for the year ending June 30 to be “modestly” above analyst estimates.

Outsourcer Capita rose 4.8%, after it said it plans to merge multiple businesses into two core operating divisions and raise 700 million pounds ($973.98 million) from other assets’ sales.

Upper Crust owner SSP shed 5.3%, after it warned that revenue from its train and bus station businesses would not recover to pre-pandemic levels before 2024.