The U.K.’s FTSE 100 dropped for the first time in three days on Thursday, with miners leading the charge south as metal prices slumped.
The benchmark UKX, -0.06% traded 0.2% lower at 6,443.21, after jumping 0.8% on Wednesday.
Mining firms weakened, with precious-metals miners posting the biggest losses as gold prices GCZ4, -1.72% slumped 1.8%. Shares of Randgold Resources Ltd. RRS, -2.66% lost 3%, and Fresnillo PLC FRES, -2.20% fell dropped 2.8%. Among larger miners, Anglo American PLC AAL, -2.03% gave up 2.1%, Rio Tinto PLC RIO, -1.14% RIO, -2.60% RIO, -0.59% slipped 1.3%, and BHP Billiton PLC BLT, -1.04% BHP, -1.36% BHP, -0.68% dropped 1.1%.
Shares of Barclays PLC BARC, +1.56% BCS, -1.92% gained 1.9% after the bank reported third-quarter adjusted pretax profit that beat expectations.
Other banks tracked Barclays higher, with shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC RBS, +0.11% RBS, -1.03% up 0.8%, HSBC Holdings PLC HSBA, +0.59% HSBC, -0.04% 0005, -0.76% rising 0.8%, and Lloyds Banking Group PLC LLOY, +0.17% LYG, +0.00% up 0.6%.
Outside the main index in London, Balfour Beatty PLC BBY, -1.68% fell 1.5% after Jefferies cut the construction company to underperform from hold.
Source: MarketWatch
