Reuters: Hot Stocks: Miner weakness ends rally in Britain's FTSE

Reuters: Hot Stocks Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Miner weakness ends rally in Britain's FTSE Apr 26th 2013, 10:57 Fri Apr 26, 2013 6:57am EDT * FTSE 100 down 0.5 percent * ENRC falls following fraud investigation * Miners ease in line with copper prices * Caution ahead of U.S. GDP figures, further easing eyed By Alistair Smout LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - Britain's benchmark share index fell on Friday after a three-day rally, with weaker mining stocks and caution ahead of U.S. economic data later in the session prompting a pull-back. Mining stocks were the biggest weights on the index, down 2 percent and easing off along with the price of copper after a strong week which still sees the sector up 2.6 percent. Kazakh miner ENRC topped the FTSE 100's loser board, with traders attributing the move to a correction in price following an investigation launched by the Serious Fraud Office late in Thursday's trading session. "With ENRC, there's just one chaotic piece of newsflow out after another," said Alastair McCaig, analyst at IG Index. "We've seen a squeeze higher in commodity price, and the miners squeezed higher than most, so we're cooling off and having a pullback now." The blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell by 0.5 percent, or 32.78 points, to 6,409.81 points at 1035 GMT, with basic material stocks, which includes the miners, taking 12.5 points off the index. The sell off was broad-based, with all major sectors bar utilities contributing to losses, pushing the FTSE down towards its 50-day simple moving average level, which stands at around 6,380 points. The index nevertheless remained up 1.9 percent on the week, and IG's McCaig predicted the recent trend of investors using market weakness to enter equities would continue. "Of all the asset classes, equities are still one of the most attractive out there ... and when yields in the bond market improve, maybe we'll stop seeing investors buying on dips." Equity markets have been supported by stimulus measures by world central banks, and many investors also expect a gradual recovery in the global economy to boost stock markets over the course of 2013. Volumes were thin, at just 20 percent of the 90-day average, ahead of GDP figures from the United States, where FTSE 100 companies derive nearly a quarter of their earnings. Traders were left hoping for a balance of encouraging signs of growth coupled with a figure low enough to justify continued easing. A Reuters poll of economists predicts a 3.0 expansion in the fourth quarter, after growth in the world's largest economy nearly stalled at 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter. "An in-line number might prove to be the best tonic for equity bulls, with concerns that a significant beat may again raise the prospect of the Fed tightening its asset purchase programme," Matt Basi, senior trader at CMC Markets, said in a trading note. (Editing by Catherine Evans) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions