G20 uncertainty puts brakes on FTSE

Weakness in heavyweight miners pulled Britain's leading shares lower yesterday, with trading choppy and volumes light, as investors awaited news from the G20 finance ministers' meeting in South Korea.

At the close, the FTSE 100 was down 16.49 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 5,741.37, retreating after hitting a six-month closing high in the previous session.

Miners were among the worst blue chip performers on worries over whether financial leaders at the G20 meeting will agree on countering currency imbalances, which have been lifting the dollar and depressing metal prices.

David Morrison, market strategist at GFT Global, said: "The market has really been held back by uncertainty ahead of the G20 meeting with the whole business of quantitative easing in the background.

"We have to worry about currency movements, with the stock market inversely correlated to the dollar, being hostage to the miners and metal prices."

Investors took no cheer from a strong show from the retail sector and better-than-forecast results from broadcaster BSkyB.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was nearly 30 points lower by the close of play in London, despite upbeat earnings from Verizon Communications and American Express.

The pound continued its slide as expectations mount over more quantitative easing from the Bank of England - sparked off by disappointing retail data on Thursday. Sterling is now trading at a six month-low against the euro, at €1.127.

BSkyB saw its shares lift 4p to 701.5p after it recruited an additional 96,000 customers in the quarter to 30 September - taking the total close to its ten million target.

Other risers included British Airways, which shook off a downgrade by SocGen to rise 2.7p to 283.4p. Results this week from American rivals have given a boost to BA ahead of its own figures due next Friday, which analysts expect to reveal a return to half-year profit.

TUI Travel also steadied after diving 11 per cent on Thursday following its admission that it will have to restate its 2009 results due to accounting errors. Shares were 6.5p higher at 211.5p, a rise of 3 per cent.

Retailers were likewise prominent on the risers' board, with Marks & Spencer leading the way up 7.9p to 426.2p, followed by Next ahead 39p to 2,313p.

State-owned banks shook off any wider G20 nerves, with Royal Bank of Scotland up 0.6p to 46.2p and Lloyds Banking Group ahead 1.5p to 71.9p.

But Barclays and Standard Chartered fell, down 2.9p to 283.1p and 70p to 1,838.5p respectively.

Weakness in mining stocks was largely to blame for the poor performance on the overall Footsie, with Eurasian Natural Resources off 20p at 907p.

In the insurance sector, Legal & General was in the spotlight after it rushed out third-quarter figures nearly two weeks ahead of schedule. It made the move after mistakenly e-mailing some of the data to analysts. Shares fell 0.6p to 103.7p.

Among Scottish stocks, Moodiesburn-based sausage skin maker Devro fell 1.9p to end the day at 238.1p despite yesterday reporting "profitable growth" in most of its markets over the past four months.