LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Loses Ground, Weighed By Housing Shares, Royal Mail

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

Miners mixed as metals prices fall

Stocks in the U.K. pulled lower Thursday, as home builder shares fell after a lackluster update on house prices, while Royal Mail PLC shares struggled following a trading update.

The FTSE 100 lost 0.2% to 7,235.40, with only the tech, financial and consumer goods sector showing minor gains. On Wednesday, the benchmark rose 0.4% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ftse-100-in-recovery-mode-after-worst-selloff-in-six-months-2017-01-18).

A 4.3% drop dragged Royal Mail (RMG.LN) shares to the bottom of the London benchmark. The delivery company reported U.K. sales declined 2% in the nine months to Dec. 25 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/royal-mail-uk-sales-fall-2-holds-to-outlook-2017-01-19). But trading was in line with expectations, it said, as strong performance over the Christmas period helped counter those poor figures.

Meanwhile, home builder stocks lost ground after a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors survey found U.K. house price growth slowed in December, for the first time since July.

Shares of Barratt Developments PLC (BDEV.LN) Taylor Wimpey (TW.LN) and Persimmon PLC (PSN.LN) were each down 1%.

Miners on the move: Mining shares were putting in a mixed performance as most metals prices fell, with gold down 0.8% and silver down 1.6%. The moves for metals came as the dollar rose, following Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen's comment (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/feds-yellen-says-she-expects-rates-to-rise-a-few-times-a-year-until-end-of-2019-2017-01-18) that the central bank expects a few interest rate hikes a year through the end of 2019. A strong buck may make dollar-denominated metals more expensive for holders of other currencies.

Copper miner Fresnillo PLC (FRES.LN) gave up 1.4%, Randgold Resources PLC (RRS.LN) fell 0.7%, and Anglo American PLC (AAL.LN) shed 0.4%.

But Antofagasta PLC (ANTO.LN) was up 1.1%, and Glencore PLC (GLEN.LN) notched a 0.7% gain.

Shares of BHP Billiton PLC (BLT.LN) (BHP.AU) (BHP.AU) rose 0.9% after the mining heavyweight and its Samarco Mineracao SA joint venture partner Vale SA (VALE5.BR) agreed a settlement plan with federal prosecutors in Brazil (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bhp-billiton-vale-jv-agree-dam-settlement-plan-2017-01-19). The plan covers negotiations over a $47.5 billion civil claim linked to a deadly dam failure.

The pound was buying $1.2314, compared with $1.2268 late Wednesday.

Speeches ahead: British Prime Minister Theresa May is speaking on Brexit at the World Economic Forum in Davos, at around 9:20 a.m. London time, or 4:20 a.m. Eastern Time.

Investors will watch for the European Central Bank's policy decision at 12:45 p.m. London time, or 7:45 a.m. Eastern Time.

The central bank is expected to hold its main refinancing rate at a record low of 0.0% and the deposit rate at negative 0.4%. The ECB in December said it's reducing the pace of monthly bond purchases to EUR60 billion beginning in April.

Read:'The more boring, the better' -- what to watch from the ECB today (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-more-boring-the-better-why-analysts-are-hoping-for-an-ecb-snoozer-2017-01-18)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 19, 2017 04:24 ET (09:24 GMT)

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