By Preeti Upadhyaya, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The main U.K. stock index traded
slightly lower Monday, as mining shares weighed while banks lent
support.
The FTSE 100 eased 0.1% to 5,843.77, partly erasing a 1% gain
from last week.
Miners led the index lower, with Vedanta Resources PLC dropping
1.9% and Kazakhmys PLC trading 1% lower. Anglo American PLC fell
0.4% and Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. PLC shed 0.7%.
It was the same for sector heavyweights Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) and
BHP Billiton PLC (BHP), shares of which were off by 0.4% and 0.5%,
respectively.
Metal prices were mostly lower.
Also on the move down, Petrofac Ltd. slumped 5%, after reporting
a 32% increase in net profit for the first half of the year, as the
oil-services firm also said second-half profit will be lower than
in the first six months.
Underpinning the FTSE 100, banking major HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC)
picked up 0.4% as Barclays PLC (BCS) added 0.9%. Shares of Standard
Chartered PLC , much in the headlines lately, picked up 1.5%.
Moving in the other direction, pharmaceutical firm
GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) slipped 0.4%.
The U.K. index, much like the rest of Europe, was focused on the
supporting role of central banks as the global economy loses
momentum, according to Mike Lenhoff, chief strategist at Brewin
Dolphin in London.
"Markets are reluctant to give up an awful lot of ground," he
continued, adding that while mining firms continued to slump thanks
to disappointing Chinese data from last week, the rest of the index
is well supported by the prospect that central banks will
ultimately act to help the global economy.
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