LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Drops As RBS Falls; But Monthly Gain In Sight

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

Royal Mail shares climb

U.K. stocks wavered Thursday, with investors assessing a raft of corporate updates from Royal Dutch Shell PLC and others, as global-growth worries linger.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.1% at 6,952.17 but has switched in and out of positive territory throughout the session. A loss Thursday would be the index's third in a row.

The blue-chip index on Wednesday stumbled 1.2% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ftse-100-in-the-red-as-mining-barclays-shares-struggle-2015-04-29), the largest percentage decline since March 31. Stocks globally were shaken lower after data showed U.S. gross domestic product grew much more slowly than anticipated in the first quarter.

But the benchmark FTSE 100 was still on track for a monthly gain of 2.6%.

On Thursday, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shares dropped 3.4% after the company swung to first-quarter net loss of 446 million pounds (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rbs-posts-loss-on-restructuring-litigation-costs-2015-04-30)($688.6 million). The bank, which is 80% owned by the U.K. government, was hurt by restructuring and litigation charges.

Shell (RDSB) shares were up 1.4% after the British oil major said first-quarter profit rose (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/shell-profit-up-7-despite-sharp-fall-in-revenue-2015-04-30-24855048), although revenue fell sharply. Profit on a current cost-of-supplies basis, similar to net income that U.S. oil companies report, rose to $4.76 billion from $4.16 billion a year earlier. Revenue fell to $65.71 billion from $109.66 billion a year ago.

Also gaining were shares of drug maker Shire PLC , higher by 2.7% after its first-quarter profit came in ahead of analyst expectations.

Royal Mail PLC was the session's strongest performer. Shares popped 5.7% higher after Dutch postal company PostNL and private equity firm LDC ended talks about expanding postal-delivery company Whistl in Britain. Jefferies noted that Royal Mail had previously said if Whistl were able to reach 40% household coverage, that could cost it about GBP200 million in revenue by fiscal year 2017-1018.

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires