London close: Financials drag Footsie lower

17th Aug 2011 16:46

Following a steep decline early on, the blue chip index staged a partial recovery on the back of a positive start on Wall Street. Nevertheless, the Footsie still finished in the red, as losses for financial stocks outweighed gains in the mining sector.Meanwhile, it was revealed today that all nine members of the Bank of England (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted in favour of maintaining the key base rate at 0.5%, according to the minutes of the 3-4 August meeting. The MPC said that economic growth in the UK was projected to remain weak in the near term, "reflecting the continuing squeeze on households' real incomes." Financials were the worst performers of the day, led by insurers Standard Life and Prudential and banks Barclays and RBS. Suggestions that European leaders could resurrect the idea of a financial transaction tax sent shares of financials into a spin. A meeting of Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday offered little by way of concrete plans to solve the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis. One prospective solution that did emerge was a tax on financial transactions, something that was rejected by the European Union in 2010.The London Stock Exchange Group also fell into the red.The miners, on the other hand, were the highest risers of the day, led Kazakhmys-focused giant Eurasian Natural Resources Corp (ENRC). ENRC pointed to continued growth in Kazakhstan's neighbour China and the recovery elsewhere as it posted a sharp rise in profits and revenues in the first half.Sector peers Fresnillo, Kazakhmys and Antofagasta were also in demand.Brewing giant SABMiller rose after going hostile with its bid for Foster's, as the Australian brewer's directors showed no interest in discussing a takeover.Educational publisher Pearson fell despite saying that it is to receive a belated cash windfall from the sale of its Government Solutions business back in 2006.Accountancy software firm Sage was out of favour a day after it confirmed that it is considering the potential acquisition of Australian financial software firm MYOB. Peel Hunt said that Sage may be over-paying for a business with weak growth prospects and lowered its target price on the stock.Shares in infrastructure group Balfour Beatty were unwanted after the firm said it expects markets to remain tough in the short term as it posted a meagre rise in underlying pre-tax profits and revenues for the half year to 1 July. Underlying pre-tax profits rose to £138m from £133m, while revenues edged up to £5.222bn from £5.16bn. BCFTSE 100 - RisersFresnillo (FRES) 1,966.00p +5.64%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 655.00p +3.72%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,262.00p +2.77%GKN (GKN) 202.50p +2.07%Unilever (ULVR) 2,072.00p +1.82%Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,038.00p +1.57%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 571.50p +1.51%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,044.00p +1.46%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,935.00p +1.42%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 271.60p +1.38%FTSE 100 - FallersStandard Life (SL.) 201.50p -5.13%Barclays (BARC) 173.95p -4.21%IMI (IMI) 832.50p -3.81%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 24.75p -3.81%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,170.00p -3.78%ICAP (IAP) 428.00p -3.71%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 443.30p -3.21%3i Group (III) 221.10p -2.81%Pearson (PSON) 1,072.00p -2.46%Prudential (PRU) 621.00p -2.44%