By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Banks led U.K. stocks lower on Tuesday,
with Barclays PLC posting one of the biggest losses after being
named in a lawsuit on alleged manipulation of gold prices.
The FTSE 100 index dropped 0.1% to close at 6,685.52, marking a
third straight session of losses.
Shares of Barclays PLC (BCS) dropped 2.4%. According to The Wall
Street Journal, AIS Capital Management has filed a lawsuit against
the five banks that set the London gold fix, which includes
Barclays, claiming that the banks conspired to rig gold prices. The
legal action follows another lawsuit by New York trader Kevin
Maher, who also has alleged the banks manipulated the price
benchmark.
HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC) , which was also named in the lawsuits,
nudged up 0.2%. According to The Wall Street Journal, the bank will
sell as much as 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) of private-equity
fund stakes on the secondaries market.
Among other U.K. banks, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS)
dropped 3% and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) slipped 0.5%.
In U.K. data news, the Office for National Statistics said
industrial-production growth slowed in January as severe weather
hurt the North-Sea oil and gas extraction and a sharp fall in
production of pharmaceutical product. Industrial production rose
0.1% in January, missing analyst expectations and slower than the
0.5% December growth rate.
The British Retail Consortium said year-on-year same-store sales
fell 1% in February, while total sales improved 0.7%. Shares of
do-it-yourself retailer Kingfisher PLC dropped 1%, while Marks
& Spencer Group PLC fell 0.3%.
Shares of Tesco PLC lost 1.8% after data from Kantar showed the
supermarket chain's market share fell to the lowest level since
2004.
Also in the spotlight in London on Tuesday, Bank of England
Governor Mark Carney defended the bank's forward-guidance framework
on interest rates in testimony to the Treasury Committee.
"I have no regrets that we're sitting here in March with more
than half a million more people in work," Carney said.
More must-reads from MarketWatch:
Analyzing earnings the smart way
Celebrating bulls lose sight of bearish picture
Miners: Iron ore hit by China squeeze, stockpiles
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires