By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks nudged up Wednesday, with
TUI AG shares popping higher following the travel-services
provider's trading update, but a downgrade of Barclays PLC was
weighing on the banking heavyweight's shares.
The FTSE 100 rose 0.1% to 7,026.87, aided by gains for
consumer-services and goods shares, as well as mining issues,
including a 0.8% gain for Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) .
TUI topped the FTSE 100, gaining 2% as the tourism company said
its winter 2014/15 season wrapped up as it had expected, with
higher average-selling prices in most of its markets. It said for
this summer, bookings and average-selling prices are each up 1%.
The demand for its own holiday packages account for 74% of summer
bookings, higher by three percentage points from the year-ago
period.
But shares of Barclays PLC fell 0.8% following a downgrade to
hold from buy at Investec. The "valuation case is no longer
overwhelming in the context of our deteriorating expectations for
the scale and pace of [return on equity] recovery," wrote analyst
Ian Gordon in a note.
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