By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch

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

The FTSE 100 index closed down 0.4% to 5,971.01. The benchmark is up around 10% in 2010.

London stocks are slated to close at lunchtime Friday for the New Year's Eve holiday and not reopen until Tuesday.

David Buik, a 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 year's first half. "With 70% of the FTSE 100 earnings coming from overseas ... 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 gave up some of the gains made in the prior session, after the precious metal hit a record level Tuesday.

On Thursday, February gold futures fell $9.90 to $1,403.60 an ounce.

Shares of Randgold Resources Ltd. declined 2.4%, and African Barrick Gold PLC dipped 1.2%

On the plus side, silver miner Fresnillo PLC rose 2.6% after that precious metal reportedly reached a 30-year peak, while copper hit $9,550 a ton on the London Metal Exchange.

Energy stocks were also weaker as crude oil fell nearly $2 a barrel to $89.10. The U.S. Energy Department reported a smaller-than-expected drop in U.S. crude supplies in the latest week.

Shares of BG Group PLC fell 0.9%, and Essar Energy PLC dropped 0.6%.

In the telecom sector, shares of Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) fell 1.1%. 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), or 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 1.5% in Paris.