LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Edges Up, But Barclays Falls After Downgrade

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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