By Shristi Achar A and Sruthi Shankar
(Reuters) -Britain's stock indexes edged lower on Monday as miners lost ground due to weaker copper and iron ore prices, while declines in homebuilders followed the UK antitrust watchdog's launch of an investigation into the sector.
The resource-heavy FTSE 100 index and the mid-cap FTSE 250 closed the session about 0.3% lower.
Industrial metal miners fell 2.3%, tracking declines in copper and iron ore prices on the back of a firmer dollar and rising inventories in top consumer China. [MET/L] [IRONORE/]
Homebuilders lost 1.5% after the Competition and Markets Authority said Britain's housebuilding market has fundamental problems that are preventing more homes from being built as it launched an investigation to see if commercially sensitive information was being shared.
"The problem has been around for years and successive governments have introduced schemes to boost the number of new homes and make them more affordable to first-time buyers", said Stuart Cole, chief macro economist at Equiti Capital.
"The fact the problem still exists after all these various measures meant it was becoming something of an albatross around the heads of governments and so the CMA finally acted."
Shares in online supermarket Ocado (LON:OCDO) slid 7.0%, the biggest faller among FTSE 100 components, following a report that said Marks & Spencer is putting a multi-million payment to Ocado on hold over poor performance.
"Ocado looks to be vulnerable to more selling as investors digest the impact of a spat with key partner Marks & Spencer," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG.
Waning bets of an interest rate cut from the Bank of England pushed the FTSE 100 lower last week, with U.S. and European consumer prices data later this week likely to test investor sentiment further.
Among other stocks, Wincanton jumped 12.2% to notch an all-time high after CEVA Logistics, a unit of French shipping firm CMA CGM, raised its offer to buy the firm for about 604.7 million pounds ($766.2 million).
Bunzl (LON:BNZL) slid 2.9% after the business supplies distributor warned that its operating margin this year would be slightly below 2023 levels.