LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Sags As Banks, Miners Lose Ground

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

Barclays shares rise despite profit drop

U.K. stocks slipped on Wednesday as most bank stocks fell, although Barclays PLC shares gained ground after the lender's earnings report.

The U.K's FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at 6,268.85. On Tuesday, the London benchmark rose 0.4%, boosted by gains for bank Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN) and oil major BP PLC (BP.LN) (BP.LN) .

Barclays PLC (BCS) (BCS) shares popped up 4% after the bank's chief executive, Jes Staley, said the lender would accelerate the disposal of "noncore" businesses and try and improve returns at the investment bank.

Barclays posted a 7% fall in first-quarter net profit (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/barclays-profit-down-7-on-investment-bank-hit-2016-04-27), hurt by falling returns at its investment bank and losses as it continues to shed unwanted assets. At Barclays' investment bank unit, underlying profit before tax fell 31%, hit by declines in bond trading.

"Investors are perhaps hopeful that things are on the up from the group, with better returns on the horizon via a revamped investment banking division -- the one that made it such a success in years gone by," said Mike van Dulken, Accendo Market's head of research, in a note.

Other bank stocks were lower. Standard Chartered dropped 2.4% after a ratings downgrade to sell from hold at Deutsche Bank, which said Standard Chartered's "revenue outlook remains challenging". Standard Chartered shares rallied 9.8% on Tuesday after the lender said bad loans eased in the first quarter. (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/standard-chartered-shares-rise-as-bad-loans-ease-2016-04-26)

RBS PLC (RBS.LN) (RBS.LN) shares turned down by 0.2%, while Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LLOY.LN) (LLOY.LN) was off 0.4%.

But Antofagasta PLC (ANTO.LN) (ANTO.LN) shares slipped 0.5%. The copper miner said output of the industrial metal rose in the first quarter compared with the same quarter a year before, prompting the company to reaffirm its full-year output guidance (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/antofagasta-copper-output-up-reaffirms-fy-targets-2016-04-27).

Antofagasta's results were "slightly disappointing vs. our numbers on the production side but nevertheless exhibited positives in terms of costs, particularly at Zaldivar," a copper mine in Chile, said analysts at Bernstein in a note.

In the mining group, only shares of Randgold Resources PLC (RRS.LN) were higher, by 0.9%.

The pound was up 0.1% at $1.4595 ahead of the release of a preliminary reading on first-quarter U.K. gross domestic product.

Markets were also on the lookout for the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy decision, due after the close of London trade.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2016 04:04 ET (08:04 GMT)

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