By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks turned slightly lower Tuesday, with Barclays PLC pulled lower, but a gain for home builder Taylor Wimpey PLC helped cushion a decline in the benchmark FTSE 100.

The FTSE 100 slipped 0.1% to 6,934.51, in part as financial shares traded lower. The index is still hovering near its best levels in more than 15 years.

Barclays shares dropped 3.2%. The firm said fines and legal costs pushed it to a net loss of 174 million pounds (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/barclays-posts-net-loss-on-fines-legal-costs-2015-03-03) ($267.4 million) for the year, as it set aside an extra GBP750 million in provision for an investigation into foreign-exchange markets.

"The bank may be at its strongest 'since the financial crisis' but the fines and provisions have detracted from the company's balance sheet," David Madden, market analyst at IG, wrote in a note. "Barclays' capital structure isn't under question, and as long as legal costs loom over the bank the share price will remain restricted."

Elsewhere in the banking group, shares of Royal Bank of Scotland PLC fell 1.3%, Lloyds PLC shed 0.3% as did Standard Chartered PLC , but HSBC PLC (HSBC) edged up 0.2%.

Also driving lower, Glencore PLC shares fell 2% although miner swung to a net profit of $2.31 billion for 2014 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/glencore-returns-to-profit-despite-commodity-slump-2015-03-03) and proposed a dividend increase of 9% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/glencore-raises-dividend-as-trading-profit-gains-2015-03-03).

The investment case for Glencore is "relatively positive due to the company's free cash flow profile, improving balance sheet, commodity exposure, and resilient marketing business" and a nearly 25% climb in the shares since mid-January "reflects some of these strengths", said analysts at Jefferies. They also said profit-taking in the near-term wouldn't be surprising as the shares trade around 30 times spot price-earnings ratio, and that near-term weakness would be an opportunity to buy at a more attractive level.

The FTSE 100 had earlier Tuesday held to higher ground after data firm Markit said U.K. construction activity in February logged the biggest pace of expansion in four months, driven by strength in new orders. The Markit/CIPS construction purchasing managers' index rose to 60.1 from 59.1 in January.

"Housing, commercial and civil engineering activity all expanded at the quickest rates since last October, helped by sharp rises in new business volumes and an improving economic backdrop," said Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit, in a statement. Moore did add that some construction companies indicated uncertainty about the outcome of the U.K. general election in May "could prove a temporary bump in the road for new work, as some clients had sought to delay spending decisions."

Home builder Taylor Wimpey told shareholders on Tuesday that it's in a solid position for 2015 with an order book of 1.66 billion pounds ($2.55 billion). Shares rose 0.6% as the company also posted a 53% climb in full-year pretax profit.

Also higher were shares of Tullow Oil as they climbed 4.1%. The restored a portion of their nearly 8% loss on Monday, when they came under pressure on speculation the drop in the oil producer's market capitalization will result in it exiting the FTSE 100.

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