LONDON MARKETS: U.K. Stocks Wobble As Miners Lose Hold On Gains
February 05 2016 - 4:35AM
Dow Jones News
By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
U.K. stocks seesawed Friday as mining shares eased back from
Thursday's rally and as investors awaited key U.S. jobs data due
later in the day.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at 5,883.82 after moving higher early
in the session. The index was looking at a 3.2% decline since last
Friday, which would break two previous weeks of advances. It would
also be the worst week in about a month.
Miners fall: Mining shares were losing the most following a
sharp rises in the previous session, helped by a slide in the U.S.
dollar . Weakness in the greenback tends to aid dollar-denominated
commodities and related shares.
Miners were "giving up ground as traders who dared bottom-pick
over the last three weeks sensibly book some handsome and very
welcome 10%-40% profits, following a helpful combination of USD
weakness, short covering, technical breakouts and brokers
suggesting a bottom for some base metals," said Mike Van Dulken,
head of research at Accendo Markets, in a note.
Glencore PLC (GLEN.LN) shares fell 4%, giving back a portion of
Thursday's 16% bounce. Standard & Poor's, citing sector
challenges, cut the commodities trader and miner's debt rating on
Wednesday to BBB-, the lowest level of investment grade.
Anglo American PLC (AAL.LN) shares were down 2.9%, on the back
of their 20% leap in the previous session. Iron ore miner Rio Tinto
PLC (RIO) (RIO) (RIO) fell 1.9%.
Oil turmoil: Shares in BG Group PLC (BG.LN) picked up 0.2% as
the energy company beat expectations for full-year production
targets
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bg-group-profit-slips-22-beats-production-target-2016-02-05-3485186).
But underlying profit fell 22% in the fourth quarter, as oil prices
collapsed. BG is being acquired by Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN)
(RDSB.LN). Shell shares edged up 0.1% Friday, while those in rival
oil major BP PLC (BP.LN) (BP.LN) dropped 1%.
Oil prices on Friday were moving lower, with West Texas
Intermediate oil down 0.7% at $31.52 a barrel and Brent crude
pulling back 1% to $34.11 a barrel.
Data ahead: The highly anticipated U.S. jobs report is due at
1:30 p.m. London time, or 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Economists polled
by MarketWatch expect nonfarm payrolls rose by 180,000 last month,
down from 292,000 in December.
Read: Why a January jobs slowdown may not be a bad sign
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-a-january-jobs-slowdown-may-not-be-a-bad-sign-2016-02-04)
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 05, 2016 04:20 ET (09:20 GMT)
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