LONDON MARKETS: Shire Shares Sink In London, Weighing On FTSE 100

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks fell Wednesday, with shares of Shire PLC plunging after U.S. drug maker AbbVie Inc. indicated it's reconsidering a plan to acquire the biopharmaceutical firm.

Investors also assessed U.K. labor-market data released Wednesday, which showed unemployment falling to its lowest level since 2008.

The Office for National Statistics said the unemployment rate between June to August fell to 6%, compared with the 6.1% reading anticipated by economists. Average weekly earnings including bonuses rose 0.7% annually, and increased by 0.9% excluding bonuses. But the growth lags inflation, which stood at 1.2% in September, so real wages are still declining.

Markets: As the Bank of England wants to see wage growth trending higher before it begins to raise interest rates, the pound (GBPUSD) briefly rose, then turned lower against the U.S. dollar after the jobs data. Sterling bought $1.5919 compared with $1.5924 ahead of the report. The pound late Tuesday traded around $1.5905.

The FTSE 100 fell 1% to 6,327.12, led by a 25% slide in Shire shares . The shares were hit after AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) signaled late Tuesday it may be rethinking its $54 billion planned purchase of Shire because new tax rules from the U.S. Treasury Department make the deal less attractive. AbbVie's board will meet next week to discuss their recommendation to buy Shire.

Shares of British drug maker AstraZeneca PLC fell 3.4%. The company earlier this year fought off a $120 billion takeover approach from U.K. drug giant Pfizer Inc. (PFE).

In other action, shares of Balfour Beatty PLC climbed 8.4% after the construction services company named Leo Quinn as its chief executive. He previously served for five years as CEO at defense technology maker QinetiQ Group PLC . Shares of QinetiQ fell 8.3%.

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