By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. equities finished lower Thursday,
losing grip of the intraday highs they hit after the European
Central Bank's chief said policy makers were open to considering
further easing measures.
The FTSE 100 index finished down 0.2% at 6,649.14, after
spending the bulk of the session wading in and out of positive and
negative territory. The equity gauge on Wednesday rose 0.1%.
The FTSE turned solidly lower as U.S. stocks came on line, with
investors greeted by a jump in weekly jobless claims ahead of the
U.S. government's jobs report for March, due Friday.
With an eye on the euro zone --the U.K.'s key trading partner --
the FTSE 100 had followed other European bourses higher after ECB
President Mario Draghi said during an afternoon news conference
that quantitative easing was part of an "ample" and "rich"
discussion by the bank's Governing Council. There's been
speculation that policy makers at some point will take action to
fight low inflation.
The European Central Bank, as expected, kept its key lending
rate at 0.25%. The central bank also held the deposit rate at 0%,
and the marginal-lending rate at 0.75%.
Ahead of the ECB decision, a report showed activity in the U.K.
services sector grew, albeit at the slowest pace in nine months,
according to Markit/CIPS data released Thursday. The business
activity index came in at 57.6 in March compared with 58.2 in
February.
Meanwhile, Mark Carney, head of the Bank of England, raised the
prospect for policy change in the U.K., with Carney telling The
Northern Echo daily that interest rates may increase before the
country's next general election.
Among movers in the U.K. market, Vodafone (VOD) shares were off
0.9% after the company said its U.K. division will invest GBP1
billion ($1.66 billion) toward improving its network, and that it
aims to create 1,400 jobs with the opening of 150 new stores.
Tullow Oil PLC topped blue-chip performers, climbing 6.2% after
the oil exploration company said it plans to repay some debt with
proceeds from the sale of $500 million of senior notes.
Shares of Just Eat PLC leapt as much as 15% on their trading
debut, giving the online food-delivery company a market
capitalization of nearly GBP1.70 billion ($2.82 billion). The
shares priced at GBP2.60 a share, the top end of the
GBP2.10-to-GBP2.60 range, and ended at GBP2.83, up 8.8% from the
IPO price.
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