UK's FTSE 100 drops as bank, consumer stocks decline

The FTSE 100 ended 0.8% down, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 shed 0.5%

The UK's FTSE 100 dropped on Thursday as Standard Chartered led a decline in bank stocks and Unilever led a decline in consumer shares after the two blue-chip firms posted disappointing earnings.

The FTSE 100 ended 0.8% down, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 shed 0.5%.

Shares of Standard Chartered lost 12.4% to the bottom of FTSE 100 after the UK lender reported a 33% plunge in Q3 pre-tax profit because of around $1 billion hit from exposure to China's banking and troubled real estate sectors.

The wider banks index lost 1.8%.

Unilever's new boss Hein Schumacher laid out long-awaited plans to simplify the business after acknowledging it had underperformed in recent years, but its shares dropped 2.8% as some investors were unimpressed.

Between higher interest rates and inflation that continues to remain high, companies are being hit heavily, said Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst, at Capital.com.

WPP, the world's biggest ad group, cut its full-year outlook for the second consecutive quarter, taking its shares 1.0% lower.

Renishaw shed 2.2% after the British engineering company posted a drop in quarterly profit and revenue.

According to a survey published by Citi bank, the British public's expectations for year-ahead inflation continued to ease in September.

In the meantime, another set of data showed Britain's car output in September increased around 40% YoY, driven by an increase in export demand.

Pest control maker Rentokil dropped for the tenth day in a row, down 10.6%, as traders kept selling after last week when the firm warned of weakness in its biggest market, North America.