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* FTSE 100 down 0.5 pct, briefly dips under 7,000 points
* Financials drop after Fed meeting; BOE in focus
* Reckitt jumps after ditching Pfizer unit bid
* Ted Baker under pressure after outlook comments
By Kit Rees
Financials were the biggest sectoral weight on the index,wiping off around 13 points as shares in HSBC, Barclaysand Standard Chartered all fell more than 1percent.
Banks, which are seen as beneficiaries of higher interestrates, fell following guidance from the
"The Fed failed to lift the future path of hiking for 2018,something, keeping the outlook at three rises across the year,rather than the four some traders had been optimistically hopingfor," Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, said.
Traders awaited a policy decision from the Bank of
Sterling traded higher ahead of the BOE meeting, puttingpressure on the FTSE.
Elsewhere jitters over
The
Shares in Micro Focus were the biggest fallers,down 5.5 percent after Moody's changed its outlook on thesoftware company's ratings to negative, following issues MicroFocus flagged earlier in the week around its purchase of HewlettPackard Enterprise assets.
Thursday's share price fall took Micro Focus' losses to 51percent for the week, its worst weekly decline on record.
Elsewhere companies trading ex-dividend weighed, withSchroders down 2.5 percent and British American Tobaccofalling 1.4 percent, while a trading update putpressure on engineering firm Halma.
A jump in Reckitt Benckiser's shares provided somerelief, with the consumer goods giant up 5.7 percent at the topof the index.
Shares in Reckitt rose after the company pulled out of thebidding for Pfizer's consumer health unit, assuagingworries that Reckitt would need to over-leverage or consider adilutive rights issue.
"Investors need to be wary of firms which make multipleacquisitions, especially if they are big and seen, or described,as transformational as the scope for something going wrong isconsiderable," Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said.
Shares in pharma stock GlaxoSmithKline declined 1percent. It might now have a better chance of buying the Pfizerbusiness but analysts were concerned that a potential deal couldput pressure on its finances.
Among mid caps, Ted Baker was the latestretailer to feel the heat as its shares dropped 7.7 percent.
The fashion retailer cautioned over a tough globalenvironment ahead despite a 12 percent rise in annual pretaxprofit thanks to higher online sales.
Nevertheless analysts at Liberum said that Ted Baker'sresults showed a "solid performance", especially against such atough backdrop.
(Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Jon Boyle)
