* Oils down as crude falls from 10-month peak on U.S. data
* Miners weak; Antofagasta results below forecast
* WPP Group drops as first-half results disappoint
By David Brett
LONDON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Britain's leading share index was
down 0.3 percent at noon on Wednesday as risk appetite wavered
in a choppy session, with weakness amongst oil and mining issues
offseting strength in pharmaceuticals, beverages and banks.
By 1105 GMT the FTSE <.FTSE 100> was off 15.65 points at
4,901.15 after hitting a near 11-month closing high at 4,916.80
on Tuesday after reassuring economic data from the United
States.
The blue-chip index has gained 6.5 percent so far this month
and is up 11 percent this year after rebounding 42 percent from
an all-time low in March.
Oil majors weighed as crude prices <CLc1> hovered around $72
a barrel after sliding 3 percent from 10-month highs on Tuesday
as industry data showed an unexpectedly large increase in crude
inventories last week. []
BG Group <BG.L>, BP <BP.L>, Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> and
Cairn Energy fell 0.8-2.9 percent.
Tullow Oil <TLW.L> sank 3 percent, after the British-based
oil explorer reported an 83 percent drop in first-half profit on
lower crude prices and production.
"It's been a lacklustre trading session. The market's coming
off the boil given the recent impressive rally, with profit
taking amongst the mining sector, which has been a tremendous
outperformer over the last few months," said Henk Potts,
strategist at Barclays StockBrokers.
Miners were weak, with Rio Tinto <RIO.L>, BHP Billiton
<BLT.L>, Kazakhmys <KAZ.L> and Xstrata <XTA.L> losing 0.9-3.1
percent.
Antofagasta <ANTO.L> was 3.9 percent lower as the Chilean
copper miner posted lower-than-expected first-half earnings and
said copper prices were likely to remain volatile in the second
half. []
Citigroup noted that Antofagasta's share price has advanced
sharply recently and said it was likely due for a breather.
Rio Tinto <RIO.L> said it was likely to open a mine in
Serbia in five or six years to exploit jadarite, a mineral used
to produce mobile phone batteries [].
Amongst individual fallers, WPP <WPP.L> dropped 3.5 percent
after the advertising group's 8.3 percent decline in first-half
revenues disappointed investors, prompting Citigroup to repeat
its "sell" rating on the stock. []
Meanwhile, ex-dividend factors clipped 0.17 point off the
FTSE 100 index, with Eurasian Natural Resources <ENRC.L>,
Fresnillo <FRES.L> and InterContinental Hotels <IHG.L> losing
their dividend attractions on Wednesday.
BANKS, BEVERAGES, PHARMAS WANTED
Banks were higher, with Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>
performing strongly, up 4.2 percent.
The state-backed lender is poised to slash retirement
benefits for staff in an attempt to save 1 million pounds in
annual costs and cut future liabilities by 500 million pounds.
Oriel Securities also raised its rating for RBS to "add"
from "reduce" in a British banking review. The broker cut its
stance on Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L> to "reduce" from "add".
Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Chartered <STAN.L> added
3.3 and 1.4 percent respectively.
Diageo <DGE.L>, the world's biggest spirits group, was up
2.5 percent ahead of results on Thursday, with Morgan Stanley
upping its stance to "overweight" late on Tuesday, with
Bernstein also having hiked its stance on the firm.
Brewing giant SAB Miller <SAB.L> rose 1.4 percent supported
by strong first-half results from Dutch peer Heineken <HEIN.AS>.
Traders went in search of the more defensively perceived
stocks, with drugs forms AstraZeneca <AZN.L> and GlaxoSmithKline
<GSK.L> climbing 1.0 and 0.9 percent, respectively.
Among individual gainers, support services group Serco
<SRP.L> climbed 5.9 percent as it beat market expectations for
first-half profit and said it was confident of meeting full year
guidance after a strong start to the second half. []
Investors were focused on U.S. durable goods data due out
later in the session, with futures indexes pointing to a firmer
start on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones <DJc1>, S&P 500 <SPc1>
and Nasdaq 100 <NDc1> all set to rise 0.1-0.4 percent.
(Editing by Dan Lalor)
