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* Retail, films drive modest UK economic growth

* Entain to buy Polish betting operator, shares slump

* Aston Martin gains on Jefferies rating upgrade

* FTSE 100, FTSE 250 steady

June 14 (Reuters) - UK's main stock indexes were subdued on Wednesday as investors keenly awaited a crucial policy decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve due later in the day, while assessing the growing likelihood of persistent rate hikes by the Bank of England.

Both the resource-heavy FTSE 100 and domestically focused FTSE 250 midcap indexes held their ground at 0824 GMT.

Data on Tuesday signalled that U.S. consumer prices rose modestly in May, boosting bets that the Fed will hit the brakes on its rate-hiking cycle on Wednesday, while expectations of a hike in July remained intact.

"We might have to do a little bit more, but the bits of inflation that have been fairly persistent are set to cool over the summer with the labour market also slowly cooling off," said Andrew Bell, chief executive at Witan Investment Trust.

"Time is on the side of making a pause look permanent."

Meanwhile, British wage growth soared and employment jumped in the three-month period ended April, raising expectations of more rate hikes from the BoE. The central bank is expected to deliver a 25-basis-point rate hike next week.

BoE Governor Andrew Bailey noted that labour market remains "very tight" and easing inflation has not met the central bank's expectations.

A separate report showed British economic output inched higher as expected in April.

British equities have traded in a narrow range for some time, pulled down by concerns over persistent BoE rate hikes and volatile commodity prices.

The benchmark FTSE 100 is marginally down so far this quarter, on track to snap two straight quarterly gains, underperforming a 1.5% and 6.3% advance in the euro zone's STOXX 600 and Wall Street's S&P 500, respectively, during the same period.

Aston Martin advanced 2.6% on a Jefferies rating upgrade to "hold" from "underperform".

Shares of gaming company Entain dropped 10%, their biggest intraday decline in four months, on a deal to buy Poland's STS Holdings.

(Reporting by Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)