By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K.'s FTSE 100 index turned slightly
higher Thursday, though its gain was limited by a sell off in the
mining sector.
The FTSE 100 index rose 0.1% to 6,845.90. Shares of ITV PLC
moved up 2.4%, perched at the top of the benchmark ahead of start
of the World Cup soccer tournament. ITV and the BBC will broadcast
the month-long series of matches from Brazil that start Thursday.
New contracts announced this week give the broadcasters the rights
to continue coverage for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup games.
But miners suffered during the session, with Anglo American PLC
dropping 3.1% after Morgan Stanley cut iron ore producer to an
underweight rating from equal weight. Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) fell 3.2%
and BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) lost 1.5%, with Morgan also cutting its
price targets on Anglo American, Rio Tinto and BHP as it reduced
its price assumptions for iron ore for 2014 through 2019, according
to Dow Jones Newswires.
In the wake of the World Bank's lowered 2014 economic growth
forecast, investors have "taken as a cue to sell FTSE mining stocks
once again," and push the sector to three-month lows, said David
Madden, market analyst at IG, in a note Thursday.
The World Bank on Wednesday cut its global economic growth
projection to 2.8% for the year, from its 3.2% forecast in January,
though it said growth in the U.S. and Europe will accelerate this
year.
Also heading lower Thursday, shares of copper producer
Antofagasta PLC gave up 1.4%.
On the broader economic front, U.K. prices for housing rose in
May, but demand shows signs of slowing, according to figures from
the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Late Thursday, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne
is expected to outline plans aimed at cleaning up Britain's
financial markets, and new measures would make it a criminal
offense to manipulate benchmarks used in foreign exchange, fixed
income and commodities markets. It's already a crime to manipulate
interest-rate benchmarks such as the London interbank offered rate,
or Libor. The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority started
investigating alleged manipulation of foreign-exchange benchmarks
last year.
The foreign-exchange benchmark -- the daily London 4 p.m. fix --
is made by taking the average of trades 30 seconds before and after
4 p.m., said Warwick Business School Dean Mark Taylor in a note
Thursday. He proposed a change that would take the average of
trades over a period of an hour -- or at about 30 minutes before
and after 4 p.m.
Making that change "would be a lot harder, if not impossible, to
move a market as big as the FX market for an hour. Removing the
incentive is much better than regulation because of the global,
decentralised nature of the foreign exchange market," said Taylor,
a former Bank of England and IMF senior economist, as well as
former currency trader.
Outside of the FTSE 100, Mulberry Group PLC shares rose 0.2% as
the luxury-goods retailer said it will expand lower-priced
offerings following the successful launch of less-expensive
handbags. Mulberry's annual profit fell 46%, while sales dipped to
163.5 million pounds ($275.16 million).
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