BUZZ-Housebuilders: suffering after broker downgrades

** Housebuilders firmly in the red as Jefferies adds tobearish comments around UK property stocks from brokers asgeneral election year gets underway

** Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments &Persimmon top 3 FTSE 100 fallers, down 3.3-4.5pct, with midcaps Bovis Homes, Berkeley,Bellway & Redrow all down more than 2.5 pct

** Negative newsflow on UK mortgage approvals, UK housingtransactions, weak house price data & lower UK GDP growth willlead to share price weakness in UK residential sector in Q12015, Jefferies says

** This weakness will continue into Q2 given uncertaintyaround the UK general election in May, it says

** Among the broker's sector-wide downgrades, it cuts thefollowing stocks to "underperform": Barratt Developments (from'buy') & Berkeley, Persimmon & Rightmove (from 'hold')

** Estate agent Foxtons extends weakness seen Thurswhen it dropped almost 6 pct on Credit Suisse downgrade; thatbroker also highlighted unknowns in general election yr

** Halifax mortgage data showing Britain's housing marketwas cooling further was released on Thurs (RM: tricia.wright1.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

Rightmove

Bellway

Persimmon

Taylor Wimpey