Reuters: Hot Stocks: UPDATE 1-Mining stocks lead Britain's FTSE index lower

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UPDATE 1-Mining stocks lead Britain's FTSE index lower Aug 19th 2013, 16:05 Mon Aug 19, 2013 12:05pm EDT * FTSE 100 closes down 0.5 pct at 6,465.73 points * Miners slip as price of copper eases * Glencore Xstrata hit by expectations of writedown * Prospects of Fed tapering also hit equities (Updates with closing prices) By Sudip Kar-Gupta LONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A drop in major mining stocks pushed Britain's benchmark share index lower on Monday, while persistent concerns about an expected reduction in U.S. monetary stimulus also weighed on the market. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed down 0.5 percent, or 34.26 points, at 6,465.73 points, continuing a pull-back that saw it dip 1.3 percent last week. The fall in heavyweight mining stocks took the most points off the index. The FTSE 350 Mining Index shed 2 percent as the price of copper fell after three weeks of gains, while miner Glencore Xstrata dropped 2 percent on expectations of a write-down on its assets. The FTSE 100 raced to a 13-year high of 6,875.62 points in late May but has since slipped back, tracking a fall in global equity markets due to expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve may start to scale back its stimulus measures next month. The Fed's monthly bond purchases, which had pushed down bond yields and led investors to seek better returns in equities, have driven much of the global equity rally this year. However, bond yields have risen over the last month due to growing expectations that the Fed may start to slow the pace of those bond purchases next month. Securequity sales trader Jawaid Afsar said the FTSE was likely to fall between now and the next Federal Reserve meeting on Sept. 17-18. "There is nothing compelling to buy the market here," he said. Afsar said he would only buy back into the FTSE 100 if it fell to the level of its 200-day simple moving average, which stands at around 6,294 points and is often seen by technical traders as a level at which buyers will step into the market. The FTSE 100 is still up around 10 percent since the start of 2013. EGR Broking managing director Kyri Kangellaris also said now was a good time to take a profit on that run-up. "If you've got any profits on the table, take them off," he said. (Additional reporting by David Brett; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Susan Fenton) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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