* HSBC falls after trading update
* Lonmin tumbles on rights issue; other miners fall
* AstraZeneca gains on trial results
By Brian Gorman
LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - Britain's blue-chip index was 0.9
percent lower at midday on Monday, with HSBC <HSBA.L> leading
banks down after a trading update, while softer commodity prices
dragged energy and mining stocks lower.
At 1044 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was down 41.34 points at
4420.75 points. It rose 5.2 percent last week and hit a
four-month closing high on Friday.
The UK benchmark is up more than 28 percent from the
six-year low to which it sank on March 9, as investors have
become more confident that the actions taken by governments and
central banks worldwide to combat recession will succeed.
"A lot of clients are taking profits," said Joshua Raymond,
strategist at City Index. "It's fairly quiet today on the
economic front, there's not many forward-looking indicators
coming out."
"As the morning has progressed, I've seen more movement into
defensives," he added.
Banking giant HSBC <HSBA.L> was down 3.7 percent, though it
said in a trading statement that it had made a "resilient" start
to 2009. Traders said that positive news for HSBC was widely
anticipated and investors were taking profits after strong gains
from last week.
Barclays <BARC.L> fell 2.1 percent, but outperformed most
other banks, having received additional offers for its iShares
business that might trump last month's agreed bid from CVC
Capital Partners.
Standard Chartered <STAN.L> and Royal Bank of Scotland
<RBS.L> fell 5 and 4.6 percent respectively.
LONMIN WEIGHS ON MINERS
Among miners, Lonmin Plc <LMI.L>, the world's third-biggest
platinum producer, fell 12.4 percent after it unveiled a $457
million rights issue and reported a loss in the first half after
metals prices fell. []
Other miners to fall included Anglo American <AAL.L>,
Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, BHP Billiton <BLT.L> and Rio Tinto
<RIO.L>, down between 1.8 and 3.5 percent, with metal prices
down broadly.
Vedanta Resources <VED.L> was down 4.7 percent, after
Citigroup cut its rating to "sell" from "buy" and UBS cut its to
"neutral" from "buy".
Oil groups fell as crude prices <CLc1> slipped back from
Friday's six-month highs, down more than 2 percent to $57.38 a
barrel.
Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> was down 1 percent while Tullow
Oil <TLW.L> fell 2.2 percent. Gas producer BG <BG.L> fell 1.2
percent.
Centrica <CNA.L> rose 6.2 percent after saying it would pay
2.3 billion pounds ($3.4 billion) for a 20 percent stake in
British Energy -- the nuclear operator bought by France's EDF
<EDF.PA> earlier this year.
The deal sees Centrica pay out less cash than had originally
been anticipated. []
The defensive pharmaceutical sector was one of the few
gainers.
AstraZeneca <AZN.L> rose 4.8 percent after its experimental
heart drug Brilinta proved superior to Sanofi-Aventis SA
<SASY.PA> and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's <BMY.N> blockbuster
Plavix in a pivotal clinical trial.[]
G4S <GFS.L> rose 8.2 percent after the security services
group said it was confident of a strong performance in 2009
after improving margins slightly in the first-quarter.
Specialty chemicals company Johnson Matthey <JMAT.L> fell
3.8 percent after UBS cut it to "neutral" from "buy".
Among midcaps, funeral services group Dignity <DTY.L> rose
6.8 percent after first-quarter operating profit rose 15.3
percent.
Equipment hire firm Ashtead <AHT.L>, however, slumped 22
percent after a profit warning.
"Investors are deciding whether this is a bear market rally
or the start of turning the corner," said Richard Hunter, head
of UK equities at Hargreaves Lansdown, London.
(Reporting by Brian Gorman; editing by Simon Jessop)
