By Carla Mozee and Victor Reklaitis, MarketWatch
Rolls-Royce, HSBC gain; trader convicted in Libor scandal
U.K. stocks edged lower Monday, hurt by a selloff in miners
after data showed factory activity fell in China, a key market for
the group.
The FTSE 100 closed down 0.1% at 6,688.62.
In the mining group, Anglo American PLC (AAL.LN) gave up 3.9%,
BHP Billiton PLC (BLT.LN)(BHP.AU) lost 3.8% and Glencore PLC
(GLEN.LN) was down 3.6%.
The mining sector was under pressure after a preliminary reading
of China's official manufacturing purchasing managers index slipped
to 50.0 in July
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinese-manufacturing-activity-slips-in-july-2015-08-03)
from 50.2 in June. Meanwhile, the Caixin flash China manufacturing
PMI dropped to a two-year low at 48.2.
Economic data: A reading on U.K. manufacturing activity in July
was released Monday, with Markit/CIPS's purchasing manager's index
moving up to 51.9 from 51.4 in June. Analysts polled by FactSet had
expected a July reading of 51.5. The reading breaks the
decelerating trend in U.K. manufacturing, but "growth remains
near-stagnant", said Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit, in a
statement.
The pound was little changed on Monday, buying $1.5603. Late
Friday, it changed hands at $1.5614.
"With the sterling-euro exchange rate still sapping export
demand and constraining growth of total order inflows, it seems
that we will again look to the service sector to sustain any
semblance of reasonable economic growth in the third quarter," said
Dobson.
Movers and shakers: Intertek Group (ITRK.LN) shares jumped 11.2%
after the British product-testing company said first-half pretax
profit rose 16.1%
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/intertek-profit-up-161-expects-to-meet-forecast-2015-08-03)
and said it expects to meet full-year forecasts.
Shares of Rolls-Royce (RR.LN) closed up 5.9%, extending Friday's
7.9% rise, after U.S.-based activist investor ValueAct revealed it
raised its stake in the engine maker to more than 5%.
HSBC PLC (HSBA.LN) was up 0.3%. The banking heavyweight said it
is selling its Brazilian business to Banco Bradesco SA
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hsbc-to-sell-brazil-unit-to-banco-bradesco-2015-08-03)in
an all-cash deal valued at $5.2 billion. HSBC said second-quarter
net profit fell nearly 4% to $4.36 billion and pretax profit rose
10% in the first half of the year.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS.LN)(RBS.LN) finished down
1.3% amid news that the U.K. has sounded out investors about buying
shares in RBS possibly as early as this week
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/uk-sounds-out-investors-over-privatizing-rbs-2015-08-03).
The government is looking to kick-start the privatization of the
lender.
Trader convicted: In other London trading news, a jury convicted
Tom Hayes
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/london-trader-tom-hayes-convicted-of-libor-rigging-2015-08-03),
a former trader at UBS Group AG (UBSN.EB) and Citigroup Inc. (C),
with fraudulently trying to rig the London interbank offered rate,
or Libor, the first criminal conviction of an individual for
manipulating the widely used benchmark.
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