LONDON MARKETS: U.K. Index Drop Ahead Of Bernanke Comments

By Preeti Upadhyaya, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks traded lower on Tuesday as the market awaited comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and as security firm G4S PLC got hit with a downgrade following its Olympics-contract debacle.

The FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 5,641.32.

Bernanke's testimony in Washington is eagerly anticipated, with investors keen to hear if he will make an announcement about a possible third round of quantitative easing by the U.S. central bank.

London investors also digested data on U.K. consumer prices, which fell 0.4% to 2.4% in June from May.

"U.K. inflation dropped sharply in June to its lowest since November 2009, further alleviating the squeeze on incomes and helping to revive consumer spending," said Chris Williamson, chief economist for Markit, in a note.

"However, the same factors that helped push inflation down may soon reverse and drive inflation higher again in coming months," he added, citing prospects for rising food and oil prices.

Among individual movers, shares of G4S extended losses from Monday, falling 5.9% as it was downgraded to neutral from buy by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The firm recently announced it expected to lose up to $78 million on its Olympics contract after coming up short in terms of security staff. The London Games begin on July 27.