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* Wall Street fails to rebound
* FTSE 100 down 1.9 pct
* Oil majors weigh
* Gold miners surge(Adds closing prices, quote)
By Julien Ponthus
LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - UK shares closed at their lowestsince April as a global sell-off on equity markets caused byfears of fast-rising rates showed no sign of ending on Thursdaydespite data showing slower than expected U.S. inflation.
The FTSE 100 ended the day down 1.9 percent, a fallbroadly in line with European benchmarks, all retreating asthe S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were set for a secondsession of heavy losses after their Wednesday plunge.
"The bloodbath for global equities comes as investors adjustto a world of higher U.S. interest rates", said Jasper Lawlerfrom London Capital Group, explaining that investors wereswitching bets on so-called growth stocks, like America'sFacebook or Amazon to "more conservativestrategies".
A smaller-than-expected rise in consumer prices in theUnited States seemed to weaken the case for an aggressivecampaign of interest rate rises but did little to reassureinvestors on either side of the Atlantic.
Adverse corporate news meant that British firms were amongthe biggest losers across Europe.
Books, newspaper and stationery retailer WH Smithposted the worst performance of the pan-European STOXX 600index, slumping 11.5 percent. It unveiled plans torestructure its high street business to face lower consumerspending and lingering economic uncertainties.
Recruiting firm Hays was second, sinking 11percent, after reporting a slower quarterly fee growth rate,hurt by a relatively stronger pound against other foreigncurrencies.
British fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown wasalso among the big losers of the day, retreating 5 percentafter a trading update which suggested a slower start to thefinancial year.
Among small market capitalizations, shares in fund managerJupiter hit 27-month lows after it reported much largerthan expected outflows in the third quarter, feeding a slide inasset management stocks that outstripped the wider marketsell-off.
Oil majors also contributed to drag the index down as oilfell to two-week lows with prices also hit by the storm on WallStreet and an industry report showing U.S. crude inventoriesrose more than expected. BP lost 2.6 percent and RoyalDutch Shell 3 percent.
Overall losses on British benchmarks were also exacerbatedby the fact that a number of stocks, such as Barratt Develoment, Centrica, HSBC and Tesco,were trading without entitlement to their latest dividendpay-out.
A surge in gold prices triggered by risk-wary investorssearching for safe havens lifted miners Fresnillo andRandGold up 9 percent and 8.7 percent respectively.(Julien Ponthus, Editing by William Maclean and Hugh Lawson)
