By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks edged higher Tuesday ahead
of data that may show Britain's inflation rate has turned
negative.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,077.31, led by mining stocks.
Miners were driven lower in the previous session after downgrades
of the iron-ore sector and weak data from China, a key buyer of
metals.
Shares of BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) and Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) , , the
largest iron-ore producers, each rose 1.4%. The companies were
downgraded by Citigroup on Monday, and Standard & Poor's put
their credit ratings on watch for possible downgrade.
Among decliners, Aberdeen Asset Management PLC fell 2% and drug
maker Shire PLC lost 1.6%.
At 9:30 a.m. London time, or 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time, investors
will receive a U.K. consumer-price index report for March from the
Office for National Statistics. The pound (GBPUSD) was trading at
$1.4653, down from $1.4676 late Monday in New York.
"Bearing in mind the warning [in] the Bank of England's
Inflation Report that the CPI will most likely turn negative, a dip
into deflation would not be much of a surprise. This could push
further back expectations of a rate hike and increase the selling
pressure on sterling," said Marshall Gittler, head of global
currency strategy at IronFX Global, in a note.
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires