Reuters: Hot Stocks: Barclays leads UK shares down as Qatar plans placement

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Barclays leads UK shares down as Qatar plans placement Nov 26th 2012, 09:59 Mon Nov 26, 2012 4:59am EST * FTSE 100 index falls 0.43 percent * Trade cautious ahead of Greek debt meeting * Barclays loses 3.7 pct as Qatar cashes in warrants LONDON, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Barclays led British blue chip shares lower with an almost 4 percent drop on Monday after its top shareholder sold its remaining warrants in the bank, with markets still nervous over efforts to seal the latest debt deal for Greece. Barclays shed 3.7 percent after the move by Qatar Holding LLC, which will lead to the sales of up to 303.3 million shares in the UK bank. Euro zone officials have said ministers are likely to conclude a deal on Monday allowing the payout of the latest tranche of European and IMF aid for Athens, although they still have to resolve a shortfall in its debt-cutting efforts. "There's still a lot of negativity surrounding Greece, and with the Barclays deal on the table, its going to impact the FTSE itself, given that people start to price in the placing," Ioan Smith, strategist at Knight Capital said, although he said that positioning for the end of the month may counteract temporary weakness. "It has come off a week of solid gains, but month end flows may counter and support risk assets going in to the end of the week." At 0916 GMT, the FTSE 100 index was down 15.61 points, or 0.4 percent, at 5,803.53, flirting with technical support around the 5,800 mark. "On the downside the key support remains at the 5,800 level, followed by an important one at the 5763 level," Guardian Stockbrokers said in a note, adding that in the other direction, there was strong resistance at 5,900 points. Financials were the biggest drag, taking 10 points off the index. Royal Bank of Scotland lost 1.8 percent, with concerns that it could receive separate fines for its alleged involvement in the Libor-fixing controversy, one from the UK's Financial Services Authority and one from the U.S. regulators, according to the Sunday Telegraph. Monday's weakness on the FTSE 100 came after the index posted the biggest gains of the year last week and five consecutive sessions of rises for only the third time this year on renewed optimism that international lenders would come to an agreement over the release of the next tranche of aid to Greece. Trade was cautious ahead of the euro zone meeting, at only 10 percent of its average 90 day volume after what is usually one of the busiest trading periods of the day. "In terms of broad risk appetite, the downside should be fairly limited today as we await any news on the Greek talks," said Jack Pollard, analyst at Sucden Finance. "Should we see some sort of package for Greece announced, we'll likely see these dips in financials bought." Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund will likely need to agree that some of the official loans to Athens might eventually be forgiven to bring down a debt burden set to reach almost 190 percent next year. (Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Patrick Graham) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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