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* UK employee numbers surge above pre-pandemic level
* JD Sports hits record high on earnings surge
* FTSE 100 down 0.5%, FTSE 250 off 0.4%
(Updates to close)
By Devik Jain and Amal S
Sept 14 (Reuters) - London's FTSE 100 ended lower on
Tuesday, dragged down by heavyweight metals and banking stocks,
while JD Sports Fashion jumped to the top of the index after
reporting strong earnings.
The blue-chip index fell 0.5%, with miners
and banking stocks dropping 2.3%
and 1.6%, respectively.
Miners Rio Tinto, Anglo American and BHP
Group were under pressure after Barclays cut its price
targets on the stocks.
The domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index
eased 0.4%, recording its worst session in nearly a week.
JD Sports Fashion gained 9.7% to hit a record high
after Britain's largest sportswear retailer reported record
earnings for the first half on robust demand for sneakers and
sportswear.
Official figures showed British employers added a record
241,000 staff to their payrolls last month, taking the total
number of payrolled employees to pre-pandemic levels.
"Its encouraging, but what's worrying is the fact that there
are over a million job vacancies. For the market, that is an
inflationary concern because it's going to put upward pressure
on wages, which feeds through to the bottom line on all the
cooperates and then pass on to the consumers," said Keith
Temperton, sales trader at Forte Securities.
"So what might seem like bullish news is potentially quite
bearish."
The focus will now turn to Wednesday's UK inflation data,
which is expected to show prices rose in August and stoke fears
of a sooner-than expected change in the Bank of England's
monetary policy.
"The headline number (UK inflation data) might cause a
twinge and the robust jobs market might add to speculation that
the UK could be within sight of a rate hike," said Danni Hewson,
AJ Bell financial analyst.
Among individual stocks, Portmeirion added 9.7% as
the homewares retailer plans to resume dividend payouts this
year after reporting record revenue.
Ocado Group fell 1.4% after its joint venture,
Ocado Retail, posted a 10.6% fall in revenue in its latest
quarter.
(Reporting by Devik Jain and Amal S in Bengaluru; Editing by
Uttaresh.V, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Paul Simao)
