By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Stocks in the U.K. declined Thursday,
led by a sharp drop in Centrica PLC shares following a downbeat
financial update from the utility.
The FTSE 100 fell 0.2% to 6,883.66. The index on Wednesday ended
flat as hawkish minutes from the Bank of England outweighed waning
worries over Greece's debt deal.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said Wednesday that
continuing talks with the country's European creditors were showing
signs of progress.
Centrica sunk to the bottom of the FTSE 100, falling 7.6% after
the parent firm of British Gas swung to a pretax loss of 1.40
billion pounds ($216.24 million). It's cutting exploration and
production capital expenditure to GBP800 million in 2015, and to
GBP650 million in 2016, which is roughly 40% below 2014 levels.
Also, Centrica rebased its dividend with a 30% cut.
"2014 was a very difficult year for Centrica and the recent fall
in oil and gas prices creates further challenge. We are cutting
investment and costs in response," said Chief Executive Officer
Iain Conn in a statement.
Also moving lower was BAE Systems PLC (BAESY), with shares down
2.4% after the defense company posted a 12% fall in full-year
earnings before impairment charges.
Energy shares were under pressure as oil prices (CLH5) fell more
than 4% and slipped below $50 a barrel. Oil prices were hit after
data issued Wednesday showed weekly U.S. crude-oil supplies surged
by 14.3 million barrels. Shares of oil major BP PLC (BP) fell 1.4%
and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) (RDSB) lost 1.3%.
On the advancing side, shares of miners Randgold Resources Ltd.
and Fresnillo PLC rose 2% and 1.5%, respectively.
On the FTSE 250, Rexam PLC shares rose 5.4% after the
beverage-can maker agreed to be purchased by rival U.S. drinks can
maker Ball Corp. (BLL) in a deal valuing Rexam at GBP4.4 billion
($6.8 billion).
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires