By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
MADRID (MarketWatch) -- London stocks were facing losses of over
1% for the week, with a lackluster session on Friday doing little
to lift the gloom. Miners rose on back of stronger gold prices, but
losers far outstripped the gainers, with banks also weak.
The FTSE 100 index was flat at 6,480.48, but Thursday's session
knocked nearly 1.6% off the index, which was the biggest one-day
and percentage decline since June 20, 2013. A sharp fall for Wall
Street stocks amid fears about imminent tapering of the U.S.
Federal Reserve's bond-buying program triggered a global fallout of
stocks on Thursday.
The FTSE 100 is set to fall 1.5% on the week.
Sharp gains for mining stocks were unable to lift the overall
index. Shares of Randgold Resources Ltd surged nearly 7%, while
Fresnillo PLC climbed close to 5%, and Anglo American PLC rose over
2%. Those gains came as gold prices were headed for a weekly gain
of nearly 4%, the biggest gain in weeks. Gold rose 2% on Thursday,
while silver jumped 5.2%.
Away from the main index, Barclays initiated coverage on three
iron-ore stocks out of the main index: Ferrexpo PLC , up 1.3%;
African Minerals Ltd. , off nearly 4%; and London Mining PLC ,
which fell 0.7%. Ferrexpo was started at equal weight, while London
Mining and African Minerals were started at underweight. Read also:
Time to look at gold, silver, miners and ETFs?
The session's biggest gainer was Persimmon PLC , which rose 7%.
Shares fell sharply the prior session.
But there was some downside pressure among the heavyweights.
Shares of WPP PLC dropped 1%, ARM Holdings PLC (ARMHY) fell 1% and
Experian PLC was down 1.4%.
Insurers were a mix, with shares of Standard Life PLC off 1.3%,
while Aviva PLC fell 1% after analysts at Exane BNP Paribas cut
shares to neutral from outperform. The analysts also said they
prefer Standard Life, where they see "significant operational
leverage from the investments unit.
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