LONDON (AFP) — UK blue chips closed lower Monday, dragged back by losses on Wall Street as investors digested a mix of earnings reports, with banks weighing in London.
At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 40.0 points at 5,312.6, while the FTSE 250 index was 151.0 points lower at 8,716.7.
Vodafone was the most traded stock, seeing 127 million shares change hands, followed by Barclays, which saw 99.8 million units switch ownership.
HBOS was the biggest blue-chip faller, off 7.3 percent or 22.75 pence at 287.5, as Citigroup cut its view of the banking sector to 'underweight' from 'neutral' and after a profit warning from Australia's third largest banking group Australia and New Zealand bank.
Barclays closed 17.75 pence lower at 338.75, Royal Bank of Scotland shed 8.75 pence to 206.25, and Lloyds TSB dropped 13 pence to 318.25.
Meanwhile, a broker downgrade left shares in Sage 6.8 pence weaker at 194.1, with JP Morgan cutting the group to 'underweight' from 'neutral'.
And Rexam was the day's second worst performer, ending the session 24.75 pence -- or 6.57 percent -- lower at 351.75, with Merrill Lynch cutting its target price to 500 pence from 570, while retaining its 'buy' rating, ahead of interim results on Wednesday July 30.
Copper miner Antofagasta was the best performer, up 36 pence -- or 7.14 percent -- at 540, followed by fellow minser Vedanta, which ended up 88 pence -- or 4.99 percent -- at 1852.
Elsewhere, airlines were in the doldrums as Ryanair warned it could make a full-year loss of up to 60 million euros if oil prices stayed high and fares fell.
British Airways, which reports first-quarter results on Friday, lost 12.25 pence to 234.5, while midcap easyJet fell 26.75 pence to 308.75.
And Tesco slipped 1.8 pence to 375.45 after Britain's biggest retailer bought a 50 percent stake in its joint venture, Tesco Personal Finance Group from RBS for 950 million pounds in cash, according to an announcement from the companies Monday.
On the upside, mining issues occupied the top eight spots on the FTSE 100 leaderboard amid higher prices for most metals and after a bullish note from Cheuvreux.
The French broker upgraded Anglo American Plc., BHP Billiton Plc. and Xstrata PLc. to 'outperform' from 'underperform', with the shares up 77 pence at 2,750, 69 pence at 1,622, and 89 pence at 3,359, respectively.
Sticking with commodities, good gains were seen among oil companies as oil prices picked up from a seven-week low today.
BP, which reports second-quarter results on Tuesday, added 2 pence to 519.5, also helped by the go-ahead to develop a major deepwater project offshore Angola.
The rise came despite continued uncertainty on its Russian joint venture.
Among other oil stocks, BG Group added 19 pence to 1,126.5, with HSBC upgrading its rating on the company to 'overweight' from 'neutral', while Royal Dutch Shell took on 8 pence to 1,833.5.
Elsewhere, Pearson climbed 10.5 pence to 606, after solid first-half results, boosted by strong profits across its education, FT group and Penguin units, leading to a confident outlook for 2008.
In other earnings news, Reckitt Benckiser added 68 pence to 2,604, after posting an 18 percent rise in first-half pretax profit on higher revenues and saying it is on track to achieve full-year net income growth target of 11 percent at constant exchange rates.
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