African Barrick Gold, Randgold Resources hit by profit taking
By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
MADRID (MarketWatch) — Stocks in London were weaker on Thursday, the last full trading day for 2010, led by gold-mining stocks that were giving back some of the prior day’s gains.
The FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,987, -9.71, -0.16%) fell 0.1% to 5,992.11, after snapping a five-day winning streak in the prior session with a 0.2% fall. The index is up around 11% year-to-date.
London stocks will close a half-day on Friday owing to the New Year’s Eve holiday and won’t reopen until Tuesday.
David Buik, strategist at BGC Partners, said U.K. equities are heading for a quiet end to 2010, after substantial gains in December as the FTSE 100 danced around 6,000.
He is upbeat for 2011, at least for the first half. “With 70% of the FTSE 100 earnings coming from overseas earnings, there is no reason to believe that ‘lean and mean’ companies will do anything but deliver decent profits and rewarding dividends,” he said in emailed comments.
Lebanon needs more power
Israel's recent discovery of offshore gas fields has Lebanon, its northern neighbor, looking to do the same to help feed its growing electricity demands. WSJ's Don Duncan reports from Lebanon.
“The FTSE could reach 7,000 by the end of the summer and then may well pull back to 6,400 by the end of the year, as austerity measures start to take their toll, coupled with ongoing issues over European sovereign debt, which threaten to regularly rear their ugly heads next year,” he added.
Stocks started Thursday’s session off firmer. But the strength quickly eroded, with gold miners giving up gains from the prior session, following record levels for the precious metal on Tuesday. February gold futures were flat at $1,413.30 an ounce.
On the plus side, silver miner Fresnillo PLC (UK:FRES 1,639, +20.00, +1.24%) rose 1.2% after the precious metal reportedly closed near its highest levels since 1980 for the March delivery contract. Silver futures were last up 18 cents to $30.88 an ounce.
Energy stocks were also weaker as crude oil slipped 2 cents to $91.10, after falling off a two-year high on Wednesday ahead of weekly supply data due on Thursday.
In the energy sector, shares of BG Group PLC (UK:BG. 1,324, -7.50, -0.56%) fell 1% and Essar Energy PLC (UK:ESSR 580.00, -5.00, -0.86%) dropped 0.8%.
