London open: Miners drag UK stocks lower, but Barclays gains

London's stock exchange opened more or less flat on Thursday as heavy falls from mining stocks and BT offset gains from Barclays and St James's Place.

The FTSE 100 was trading 0.1% lower at 6,449 in early deals.

The subdued start follows a weak performance on Wall Street overnight as investors reacted to the expected removal of stimulus by the Federal Reserve, as it voted to end its quantitative easing programme.

The Fed also opted to keep its interest rates unchanged, vowing to maintain them near zero a "considerable time".

"The description of recent developments was noticeably more upbeat on activity and the labor market, but also somewhat more downbeat on the inflation picture," said analysts at Deutsche Bank. They said that the statement was consistent with its prediction for a rate hike in mid-2015.

A raft of economic data will be in focus on Thursday, including Eurozone confidence figures, US gross domestic product estimates and US jobless claims.

Barclays and St James's Place impress

Barclays unveiled a third-quarter adjusted pre-tax profit well ahead of forecast as it held costs to a five-year quarterly low and made a £670m provision against fines for rigging forex and PPI mis-selling. The bank generated a profit for the third quarter of £1.59bn, up 14% on the year before and well ahead of the £1.1bn consensus prediction.

Wealth manager St James's Place was a high riser after seeing strong inflows in its third quarter, helped by a big increase in demand for new ISA investments. Funds under management reached a record £49.1bn by 30 September, up 17% on the year before.

Mining stocks including Randgold Resources, Fresnillo, Antofagasta and Anglo American were out of favour as metal prices declined on the back of a stronger dollar. Trader Toby Goar from Spreadex explained that after the Fed decision, "the ‘cheap’ dollars that had flooded the market are now being reduced and hence the dollar has appreciated against most major currencies".

Telecoms titan BT Group was lower despite reporting second-quarter earnings above market forecasts as strong demand for fibre broadband and sports channels led to a decent jump in profits. Operating profits rose 1% to £1.45bn, but sales fell 2% to £4.83bn.

Royal Dutch Shell slipped as investors shrugged off a bigger-than-expected 31% jump in third-quarter earnings to $5.8bn, as the market reacted to the news that chairman Jorma Ollila will step down after nine years.

Transport group National Express rose after saying it is on track to meet its profit expectations for the full year after a 15% increase in third-quarter pre-tax profit.

Also higher was Astrazeneca as its Xigduo XR type 2 diabetes treatment was approved for use in adults by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Market Movers
techMARK 2,738.06 +0.13%
FTSE 100 6,448.74 -0.08%
FTSE 250 15,239.93 +0.04%

FTSE 100 - Risers
St James's Place (STJ) 709.50p +3.12%
Barclays (BARC) 223.90p +1.54%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 226.90p +0.98%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,486.00p +0.95%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 388.00p +0.73%
BAE Systems (BA.) 449.20p +0.69%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,100.00p +0.61%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 631.70p +0.59%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,309.00p +0.57%
Compass Group (CPG) 991.50p +0.51%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 3,920.00p -2.51%
Fresnillo (FRES) 733.50p -2.07%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,326.50p -1.92%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 693.00p -1.56%
Glencore (GLEN) 318.80p -1.51%
BT Group (BT.A) 370.70p -1.28%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,033.00p -1.15%
Experian (EXPN) 936.00p -1.11%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 981.10p -1.11%
BG Group (BG.) 1,033.00p -1.10%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Countrywide (CWD) 469.60p +4.19%
National Express Group (NEX) 244.00p +3.74%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,275.00p +3.27%
RPS Group (RPS) 239.50p +2.57%
AL Noor Hospitals Group (ANH) 1,016.00p +2.32%
Pace (PIC) 348.00p +2.17%
Homeserve (HSV) 340.80p +2.01%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 195.40p +1.93%
Infinis Energy (INFI) 216.90p +1.78%
IP Group (IPO) 203.40p +1.75%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 102.80p -4.55%
Afren (AFR) 89.50p -4.02%
African Barrick Gold (ABG) 208.00p -3.70%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 402.40p -2.80%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 55.05p -2.57%
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 349.60p -2.35%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 820.50p -2.15%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 222.40p -2.03%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 2,451.00p -2.00%
AO World (AO.) 158.80p -1.98%