London close: Gains erased as US data disappoints

After a strong start, the FTSE 100 slumped into the red by the close on Monday afternoon as disappointing data and corporate earnings from the US dampened the positive mood.Nevertheless, markets on the whole gave a rather muted reaction to Friday's move by Fitch to strip the UK of it prized 'AAA' credit rating, downgrading the country to 'AA+'.Stocks were making gains early on after the G20 showed support for the Bank of Japan's recent aggressive easing measures. There had been concerns that Japan would be warned about future bond buying given the rapid depreciation of the yen over the last few weeks.Meanwhile, Giorgio Napolitano allowed himself to be re-elected President of Italy over the weekend as the country attempted to move towards political stability two months after the inconclusive elections.However, the Footsie slipped into negative territory after the opening bell on Wall Street as figures from the US housing market disappointed. Existing home sales fell by 0.6% from 4.95m to 4.92m in March, while analysts had expected a 0.4% increase to 5.0m.First-quarter earnings from global bellwether Caterpillar also failed to please the Street today after the mining and construction equipment group reported a 45% drop in profits. The company also scaled back its full-year guidance.There is likely to be some element of caution amongst traders this week ahead of economic growth figures from the UK and US on Thursday and Friday, respectively. Consensus estimates are for a 0.1% expansion in UK gross domestic product in the first quarter and 3.1% growth in the States.FTSE 100: Randgold tracks gold higherGold miner Randgold was a high riser today, rebounding after some heavy falls last week on the back of a slumping gold price. The precious metal was making decent gains today with spot gold up 1.44% on the day by the close. The stock was also given a lift today by the news that BlackRock has increased its holding to 14.11%.An increase in risk appetite was benefitting financial stocks today with banking peers Barclays, Lloyds, RBS, and Standard Chartered among the highest risers. Lloyds had been making headlines over the weekend on rumours that it is putting its fund management arm Scottish Widows Investment Partnership up for sale to raise £820m. Meanwhile, Barclays was in demand ahead of its results on Wednesday after Deutsche Bank reiterated its 'buy' rating for the stock this morning, saying it sees 33% upside to its target price of 380p. Insurance giant Standard Life was also in demand ahead of its first-quarter update on Wednesday. Panmure Gordon has reiterated its 'buy' rating for the stock this morning, saying that the recent pull-back in the stock gives investors an "excellent opportunity to acquire the shares".ENRC was a heavy faller, pulling back after having surged by over a quarter on Friday after major shareholder Alexander Machkevitch said he was seeking a consortium to mount a bid for the Kazakhstan-focused miner. Other miners including EVRAZ, Vedanta and Xstrata were also in the red.Consumer product group Reckitt Benckiser edged lower despite reporting decent growth in the first quarter with its Health division performing strongly. Both Investec and Canaccord Genuity kept their 'sell' ratings on the stock today on valuation grounds.Terrestrial broadcaster ITV impressed after announcing the acquisition of The Garden, the production company behind the popular show '24 Hours in A&E'.FTSE 250: Dixons Retail rises on new dealDixons Retail, the electrical retailer, saw its shares climb after it announced an agreement to sell Webhallen to Komplett As, a Norwegian based e-commerce company for a cash consideration of approximately SEK140m. Online betting group Betfair also pleased the market after rejecting a proposal for a possible bid offer from CVC Capital Partners, saying that it under valued the company's prospects and was highly conditional.Spirent Communications was a heavy faller on the FTSE 250 after saying that the slowdown in the market was worse than expected in the first quarter.FTSE 100 - RisersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,870.00p +4.42%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 49.13p +3.45%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 286.20p +2.03%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 853.00p +1.85%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 256.40p +1.62%British Land Co (BLND) 581.00p +1.48%Tesco (TSCO) 368.10p +1.41%Standard Life (SL.) 338.90p +1.38%G4S (GFS) 306.00p +1.36%easyJet (EZJ) 1,124.00p +1.35%FTSE 100 - FallersEvraz (EVR) 155.10p -4.14%Amec (AMEC) 965.50p -3.40%Melrose Industries (MRO) 236.60p -3.27%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,267.00p -2.69%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,074.00p -2.67%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 284.10p -2.37%Glencore International (GLEN) 307.40p -2.32%Xstrata (XTA) 937.00p -2.09%Meggitt (MGGT) 466.00p -2.08%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,341.00p -2.01%FTSE 250 - RisersAfrican Barrick Gold (ABG) 188.50p +5.25%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 37.01p +4.87%Betfair Group (BET) 838.50p +4.16%Ocado Group (OCDO) 145.00p +3.57%Rank Group (RNK) 164.40p +3.27%Playtech Ltd. (PTEC) 616.00p +2.84%International Personal Finance (IPF) 459.30p +2.80%Redrow (RDW) 202.60p +2.43%Interserve (IRV) 473.70p +2.42%Unite Group (UTG) 320.20p +2.30%FTSE 250 - FallersKazakhmys (KAZ) 353.60p -8.32%Persimmon (PSN) 1,055.00p -6.64%Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 105.00p -4.98%Ashtead Group (AHT) 585.00p -4.10%Fenner (FENR) 340.00p -4.09%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 160.00p -4.08%Lonmin (LMI) 257.10p -3.67%Renishaw (RSW) 1,494.00p -3.67%Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,479.00p -3.59%Alent (ALNT) 328.00p -3.10%BC