LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Sags As Banks, Miners Lose Ground
April 27 2016 - 3:19AM
Dow Jones News
By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
Barclays shares rise despite profit drop
U.K. stocks slipped on Wednesday as most bank stocks fell,
although Barclays PLC shares gained ground after the lender's
earnings report.
The U.K's FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at 6,268.85. On Tuesday, the
London benchmark rose 0.4%, boosted by gains for bank Standard
Chartered PLC (STAN.LN) and oil major BP PLC (BP.LN) (BP.LN) .
Barclays PLC (BCS) (BCS) shares popped up 4% after the bank's
chief executive, Jes Staley, said the lender would accelerate the
disposal of "noncore" businesses and try and improve returns at the
investment bank.
Barclays posted a 7% fall in first-quarter net profit
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/barclays-profit-down-7-on-investment-bank-hit-2016-04-27),
hurt by falling returns at its investment bank and losses as it
continues to shed unwanted assets. At Barclays' investment bank
unit, underlying profit before tax fell 31%, hit by declines in
bond trading.
"Investors are perhaps hopeful that things are on the up from
the group, with better returns on the horizon via a revamped
investment banking division -- the one that made it such a success
in years gone by," said Mike van Dulken, Accendo Market's head of
research, in a note.
Other bank stocks were lower. Standard Chartered dropped 2.4%
after a ratings downgrade to sell from hold at Deutsche Bank, which
said Standard Chartered's "revenue outlook remains challenging".
Standard Chartered shares rallied 9.8% on Tuesday after the lender
said bad loans eased in the first quarter.
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/standard-chartered-shares-rise-as-bad-loans-ease-2016-04-26)
RBS PLC (RBS.LN) (RBS.LN) shares turned down by 0.2%, while
Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LLOY.LN) (LLOY.LN) was off 0.4%.
But Antofagasta PLC (ANTO.LN) (ANTO.LN) shares slipped 0.5%. The
copper miner said output of the industrial metal rose in the first
quarter compared with the same quarter a year before, prompting the
company to reaffirm its full-year output guidance
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/antofagasta-copper-output-up-reaffirms-fy-targets-2016-04-27).
Antofagasta's results were "slightly disappointing vs. our
numbers on the production side but nevertheless exhibited positives
in terms of costs, particularly at Zaldivar," a copper mine in
Chile, said analysts at Bernstein in a note.
In the mining group, only shares of Randgold Resources PLC
(RRS.LN) were higher, by 0.9%.
The pound was up 0.1% at $1.4595 ahead of the release of a
preliminary reading on first-quarter U.K. gross domestic
product.
Markets were also on the lookout for the U.S. Federal Reserve's
policy decision, due after the close of London trade.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 27, 2016 04:04 ET (08:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
FTSE 100
Index Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
FTSE 100
Index Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024