(Reuters) -Britain's benchmark FTSE 100 fell for a second consecutive session on Friday as losses in heavyweight miners and industrials outweighed gains in consumer stocks. The benchmark FTSE 100 was
UK Stocks Decline as Trump Heightens Trade Tensions with China
(Reuters) -British stocks slumped on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a "massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese goods, setting off a broad equities selloff in the final minutes of trading.
The FTSE 100 closed down 0.9% to 9,427.47 points. The pullback pushed the blue-chip index into the red for the week by 0.67%.
The mid-cap index was down 1.14% on Friday and also recorded a weekly loss of 1.8%.
Trump also threatened to cancel a planned meeting with China's President Xi Jinping over a rare earths dispute, escalating trade tensions between the world's two largest economies.
The renewed trade friction raised concerns about global growth, sending the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 index down 1.8%.
Hopes for easy U.S. monetary policy and easing trade worries have helped major equity bourses rally to all-time highs, including the UK's blue-chip index, which scaled a new peak on Wednesday.
In the market, the oil and gas sector was the biggest drag, down 2.9% as oil prices declined to multi-month lows on Friday. [O/R]
Shell and BP were the biggest weights on the FTSE 100 with 2.9% and 2.8% declines, respectively.
The aerospace and defence sector fell 1.6%. Rolls-Royce fell 1.4%, while BAE Systems and Melrose lost 1.6% and 2.6% respectively.
Resource-linked sectors also took a hit, with precious and industrial metal miners down 1.8% and 2.3%, respectively, tracking a dip in gold and copper prices. [GOL/] [MET/L]
Endeavour Mining and Glencore were among the worst performers on the FTSE 100, as investors booked some profits after a recent rally.
Among other stocks, Ibstock lost 4%, hitting its lowest level in over nine years, after the bricks and concrete maker warned its annual profit would fall below expectations.
The stock was among the worst performers on the domestically focussed FTSE 250 and weighed on the broader construction sector, which was down 0.6%.
Conversely, consumer staples stocks saw gains, with beverages companies up moderately, and personal care, drug and grocery companies up 0.9%.
(Reporting by Sanchayaita Roy, Avinash P and Purvi Agarwal; Editing by Shreya Biswas, Chris Reese and Vijay Kishore)
