By Sara Sjolin and Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index fell on
Monday, extending losses into a fifth straight week.
The benchmark index dropped 0.9% to 6,255.49 after closing lower
for a fourth straight week on Friday amid a wider rout in European
markets. European stocks were also on the decline on Monday.
"Where markets go now is anyone's call, but it does seem as if
the underlying volatility that had been elusive for some months is
now back with us," said Tony Cross, market analyst at Trustnet
Direct, in a note.
Only the sector registering gains was the consumer services
group, with travel stocks pushing higher after a rough ride in
recent sessions. Shares of InterContinental Hotel Group were up
3.8%, TUI Travel PLC rose 2.2% and British Airways parent
International Consolidates Airlines picked up 1.6%.
Among major movers in London, shares of Petrofac Ltd. lost 2.7%.
The oil-field-services provider leapt 7.3% on Friday saying it is
on track to meet its full-year profit expectations.
Shares of Shire PLC fell 0.4% after the drug maker said its
chief financial officer James Bowling is stepping down to join
Severn Trent PLC .
In other developments, the automated system used to shift
billions of pounds a day between banks was hit by a technical
problem, resulting in the delay of U.K. purchases of houses and
other big transactions. The glitch in the Real Time Gross
Settlement Payment System is related to routine maintenance work,
said the Bank of England on Monday. The "most important payments
are being made manually," and all payments made Monday will be
processed, the central bank said.
The outage of the RTGS affected the Clearing House Automated
Payments System, or CHAPS, which handles large transactions
including payments for house purchases. CHAPS in a separate
statement said it's extending operational hours on Monday. CHAPS
processed more than GBP70 trillion pounds ($113 trillion) last
year.
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