By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The U.K.'s benchmark stock index posted
its second weekly loss in a row on Friday after uncertainty about
the Ukraine crisis caused investors to sell equities ahead of the
weekend.
The FTSE 100 index dropped 1.1% to close at 6,712.67, ending the
week 1.4% lower.
Dragging the benchmark lower, miners posted some of the biggest
losses. Shares of Anglo American PLC lost 6.6%, Glencore Xstrata
PLC (GLCNF) fell 4.4%, Fresnillo PLC dropped 2.2% and Rio Tinto PLC
gave up 3.3%. The losses came as metals prices dropped across the
board, with gold falling 1% and silver dropping 2.8%.
Shares of HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC) gave up 1% after Goldman
Sachs removed the U.K. heavyweight from its pan-European conviction
buy list and its "Directors of Research Focus List".
The wider banking sector also dropped, with shares of Barclays
PLC (BCS) down 2% and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) 1.7%
lower.
The weakness in risk-sensitive sectors such as banks and miners
came as the tensions between Russia and Ukraine intensified Friday
afternoon, after the part state-owned Gazprom said it might halt
gas deliveries to Ukraine as it did in 2009, because the country
hasn't paid for its February supply. Gazprom also said Ukraine owes
it $1.89 billion for gas, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Earlier in the day, the FTSE 100 briefly moved into positive
territory after the U.S. nonfarm-payrolls report beat expectations.
After sluggish readings for December and January, 175,000 jobs were
added to the economy in February, signaling the economy hasn't
slowed as much as a recent spate of indicators appear to
suggest.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.7% from 6.6% --
the first rise in 14 months -- but that was mainly because more
people entered the workforce in search for jobs, which is usually a
sign of increased optimism on the labor market.
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