By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch

MADRID (MarketWatch) -- Stocks in London were weaker on Thursday, the last full trading day for 2010, led by losses for Randgold Resources and Vodafone Group.

The FTSE 100 index fell 0.2% to 5,982.81, after snapping a five-day winning streak in the prior session with a 0.2% fall. The index is up around 11% year-to-date.

London stocks will close a half-day on Friday owing to the New Year's Eve holiday and won't reopen until Tuesday.

David Buik, strategist at BGC Partners, said U.K. equities are heading for a quiet end to 2010, after substantial gains in December as the FTSE 100 danced around 6,000.

He is upbeat for 2011, at least for the first half. "With 70% of the FTSE 100 earnings coming from overseas earnings, there is no reason to believe that 'lean and mean' companies will do anything but deliver decent profits and rewarding dividends," he said in emailed comments.

"The FTSE could reach 7,000 by the end of the summer and then may well pull back to 6,400 by the end of the year, as austerity measures start to take their toll, coupled with ongoing issues over European sovereign debt, which threaten to regularly rear their ugly heads next year," he added.

Gold miners giving up gains from the prior session, following record levels for the precious metal on Tuesday. February gold futures fell $3.30 at $1,410.10 an ounce.

Shares of Randgold Resources Ltd. slipped 1.2%.

On the plus side, silver miner Fresnillo PLC rose 1.2% after the precious metal reportedly reached a fresh 30-year peak, while copper hit $9,550 a ton on the London Metal Exchange.

Energy stocks were also weaker as crude oil slipped 2 cents to $91.10, after falling off a two-year high on Wednesday ahead of weekly supply data due on Thursday.

In the energy sector, shares of BG Group PLC fell 1.3% and Essar Energy PLC dropped 0.8%.

Shares of Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) were also off 1.2%. The Daily Mail reported Thursday that the mobile group is ready to open negotiations over the sale of its 7 billion pound ($10.8 billion) 44% stake in French wireless group SFR to Vivendi SA . The Daily Mail cited one source as saying the sale would leave a hole in Vodafone's European coverage. Shares of Vivendi fell 1.2% in Paris.