Finance & Stock Market News

By Harpreet Bhal

LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Britain's leading share index

closed lower on Wednesday as falling commodity prices stung oil

firms and miners while investors stayed cautious ahead of the

conclusion of a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting.

The FTSE 100 ended 0.1 percent, or 3.23 points,

lower at 5,139.37, erasing gains from earlier in the session as

shares on Wall Street fell and oil and metals prices retreated

across the board.

The Fed's statement was due at 1815 GMT. Economists expect

the central bank to hold rates at close to zero and investors

will look for any hint of how it plans to withdraw from

programmes that have pumped trillions of dollars into the

banking system.

Oil majors took the most points off the index as crude

prices fell more than $3 on data showing a large rise in

U.S. crude stocks. BG Group, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Tullow Oil shed between 0.2 and 1.6

percent.

'There is a bit of technical selling going on. The market

has made three attempts to making new highs and each attempt has

failed and it looks like the sell-off has followed through now,'

said Angus Campbell, head of sales at Capital Spreads.

'As we come into the end of the third quarter the markets

have made such good gains that there's bound to be a bit of

profit taking at some stage,' he said.

Miners were in the doldrums as metals prices were in

negative territory on demand worries. Antofagasta,

Eurasian Natural Resources, Lonmin and BHP

Billiton lost 1 to 2 percent.

Among other standout losers, Liberty International

dropped 10 percent after Britain's largest shopping mall owner

launched a placing of 56.1 million new shares. KBC Peel Hunt

wrote in a note to clients that other UK real estate firms could

follow suit.

British Land, Hammerson and Land

Securities, all cited as possible candidates for share

placings in the KBC Peel Hunt note, fell 1.4 to 4.5 percent.

Meanwhile ex-dividend factors knocked 1.94 points off the

index, with Aviva, Centrica, G4S and

Petrofac all losing their dividend payout.

Earlier in the session, minutes of the Bank of England's

Sept. 9-10 Monetary Policy Committee meeting showed members

voted unanimously to keep the volume of quantitative easing at

the 175 billion pounds agreed in August.

Data showed British banks approved 81.4 percent more home

purchase loans in August than the same month a year ago but

consumer credit abd demand for re-mortgaging remained subdued,

the British Bankers Association said.



DEFENSIVES STRONGER

Among FTSE gainers, defensive stocks, perceived as safer,

were higher as risk aversion took hold. Satellite operator

Inmarsat rose 2.5 percent, while mobile

telecommunications firm Vodafone put on 1.3 percent.

Imperial Tobacco gained 1.3 percent, drawing

strength from a price target hike by Natixis to 2,075 pence from

1,935 pence. British American Tobacco was 1.1 percent

higher.

Burberry rose 5.4 percent, bolstered by recent

bullish comments from its chief executive Angela Ahrendts, which

added to the positive buzz surrounding the luxury goods

retailer, analysts said.

Keywords: MARKETS BRITAIN STOCKS

(harpreet.bhal@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 4533; Reuters Messaging: harpreet.bhal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

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