By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks turned lower Thursday,
heading for their fourth consecutive decline, led by another round
of pullbacks for mining companies.
The FTSE 100 fell 0.8% to 6,449.36. The FTSE 100 index on
Wednesday marked the first time in two months that it lost ground
in three straight sessions, noted Bill McNamara, technical analyst
at Charles Stanley, in a report early Thursday. The FTSE 100's
closing at session lows on Wednesday "strongly implies that it has
further to fall in the near term," he wrote. "Hopes of a 'Santa
rally' are fading fast."
U.K. stocks on Thursday turned lower alongside the broader
European market, where tepid demand among banks for cheap loans
from the European Central Bank added another layer to the
lackluster-growth picture in the eurozone, the U.K.'s main trading
partner.
Bearing the brunt of the turnaround in London trade was the
basic materials sector, which fell 3% as nearly all mining stocks
fell at least 1%. At the bottom of the FTSE 100, Randgold Resources
Ltd. fell 4.6%, Fresnillo PLC gave up 4.1% and Anglo American Ltd.
shed 3.5% following a ratings downgrade at BNP Paribas to
underperform from neutral.
In the energy space, BG Group PLC fell 2.6% and Tullow Oil PLC
declined 2%. But shares of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC were
each off 0.2%, respectively, and have been darting between small
gains and losses.
Shares of energy-engineering firm Weir Group PLC were also
bouncing between gains and losses, and were recently down 0.1%. The
energy engineering firm was downgraded at Citi Research to neutral
from buy, as the 35% drop in oil prices since September "has driven
a deteriorating earnings outlook," for Weir, wrote analyst Andrew
Simms in Thursday note.
Meanwhile, shares of Sports Direct International PLC fell 1.7%.
They had been higher earlier in the session after the retailer
posted a 5% rise in first-half pretax profit.
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