By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks seesawed Tuesday, as shares in BP PLC and other FTSE 100 companies reacted to analyst downgrades.

Meanwhile, the pound wrestled with weakness after official data showed consumer prices in the U.K. were flat last month.

The FTSE 100 has swayed between minor gains and losses, most recently rising 2 points to 7,066.55, with only the mining sector edging higher. Miners were driven lower in the previous session after downgrades of the iron-ore sector and weak data from China, a key buyer of metals.

Shares of BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) and Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) , , the largest iron-ore producers, were each up 1.7%. The companies were downgraded by Citigroup on Monday, and Standard & Poor's put their credit ratings on watch for possible downgrade

The FTSE 100 was weighed in part by declines in shares of BP PLC (BP), Aberdeen Asset Management PLC and Associated British Foods PLC .

BP was off 0.3% as Citigroup cut its rating on the energy major to neutral from buy.

But Aberdeen shares dropped the most among blue-chips, falling 1.1% after RBC Capital Markets cut the company to underperform from sector perform, lowered its price target by 4% to GBP4.55 and reduced per-share earnings forecasts. RBC said the moves come as they "expect an acceleration in equity net outflows," in the three months to March. They estimated those outflows have more than doubled to GBP1.9 billion from GBP900 million. Aberdeen's fiscal 2015 results are due May 5.

Associated British Foods fell 1% as Jefferies said it's cutting its mid-term estimates on the company by 5% to 8% to reflect "further currency headwinds" since its late January downgrades on Primark and sugar gross margins. It also cut ABF's price target to GBP28.50 from GBP29.

Sterling: The pound (GBPUSD) was trading at $1.4650, recovering from an intraday low of $1.4603 it reached after the Office for National Statistics said consumer prices in the U.K. were flat in March (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/uk-consumer-prices-stay-flat-in-march-2015-04-14-4485508) from the year-earlier period. The inflation rate came in at 0.0%, unchanged from February.

"Although this was widely expected, other measures of inflation were mostly weaker than anticipated, causing the pound to slide as speculators pushed their Bank of England rate hike expectations further out," wrote Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at Forex.com, in a note.

The core CPI was just 1%, the lowest level since July 2006.

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