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.