LONDON MARKETS: Vodafone Leads U.K. Stocks Lower On Verizon Deal

By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Vodafone Group PLC led U.K. stocks lower on Tuesday after the telecom firm reached a deal to sell its stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications Inc. for $130 billion.

Shares of the U.K. heavyweight (VOD) fell 5% after the deal, which was announced Monday after the markets closed in Europe. Verizon will pay Vodafone about half of the acquisition in cash and the other half in company stock. Verizon shares were down 2.4% on Wall Street.

Vodafone said on Tuesday it would launch a 6-billion-pound ($9.35 billion) investment plan called Project Spring to improve 4G networks, increase broadband access and improve customer service.

When the rumors of the deal first came out last Thursday, Vodafone shares rallied 8.2%, and analysts described the drop on Tuesday as a case of "buy the rumor, sell the fact."

More broadly in London, the FTSE 100 index fell 0.6% to close at 6,468.41.

Property stocks were among some of the biggest decliners after a round of ratings downgrades from Deutsche Bank. The bank cut British Land Co. PLC , off 2.6%, to hold from buy, and Land Securities Group PLC , off 3%, was cut to sell from hold.

"We expect tapering of U.S. quantitative easing over the next 12 months to reduce the liquidity in the global financial system on which property shares thrive. While we do not expect much impact on the direct property market, we expect property shares to suffer while this transition takes place," the analysts said.

On a more upbeat note, mining firms were higher, tracking gains for most metals prices.

Shares of BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) gained 0.8%, Antofagasta PLC added 0.9% and Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) put on 0.8%.

Shares of Associated British Foods PLC picked up 1.2% after Exane BNP Paribas lifted the firm to outperform from underperform.

Shares of Centrica PLC gained 1.1% after Deutsche Bank lifted the energy firm to buy from hold.

"We expect Centrica's upstream energy business to benefit from a tighter European gas market over the coming two years while the downstream British Gas business should return to growth against a backdrop of a recovering U.K. economy," the analysts said.

Outside the main index, Debenhams PLC lost 4.2% after Exane BNP Paribas cut the department-store firm to underperform from neutral.

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