*RBS falls after trading update
*U.S. crude above $133 a barrel, boosts oil shares
*Antofagasta says challenge to maintain margins
By Dominic Lau
LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares ticked down
by midday on Wednesday, as Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L> led
banks lower after a trading update and miners weighed after
Antofagasta's comments on margins, though oil stocks rose.
By 1116 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was down 5.7 points, or
0.1 percent at 5,821.6, after losing 0.9 percent on Tuesday to
hit its lowest closing level since late March.
"We seem to be drifting between 5,800 and 6,000 at the
moment. There are still a number of economic questions that need
to be answered. The FTSE 100 seems relatively comfortable around
this level," said Richard Hunter, head of UK equities at
Hargreaves Lansdown.
"But in terms of breaking out certainly on the upside, there
need to be some positive catalysts which at the moment are not
really in evidence.
Miners weighed after Antofagasta <ANTO.L> said its major
challenge is maintaining its profit margins amid higher costs on
oil and energy. Antofagasta dropped 3.5 percent.
Xstrata <XTA.L>, Rio Tinto <RIO.L>, Vedanta Resources
<VED.L>, BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, Kazakhmys <KAZ.L>, Anglo American
<AAL.L> and Lonmin <LMI.L> were down between 0.5 and 2.1
percent.
Royal Bank of Scotland shed nearly 5 percent after it said
in an update that results would be held back by the impact of
the global credit crunch, despite performance and writedowns on
risky assets remaining in line with its previous guidance.
Alliance & Leicester <ALLL.L>, Barclays <BARC.L>, Standard
Chartered <STAN.L> and Bradford & Bingley <BB.L> lost 1.3 to 3.5
percent. HBOS <HBOS.L>, however, added 0.9 percent after UBS
upgraded its rating to "buy" from "neutral".
Oil shares offered some support as crude prices <CLc1>
climbed above $133 a barrel. BP <BP.L> rose 3 percent, Royal
Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> gained 2.1 percent, gas producer BG Group
<BG.L> added 1.8 percent and Cairn Energy <CNE.L> put on 1.7
percent.
On the economic front, UK jobless numbers rose for a fourth
month in a row in May, while earnings growth in the three months
to April was weaker than expected.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research said
British GDP growth is estimated to have slowed to 0.2 percent in
the three months ending in May, from 0.4 percent in the three
months to April.
"We will have a good day or two, but I still think we will
see lower prices eventually ... because the trend is down," Tom
Hougaard, chief market strategist at City Index Markets, said.
"After we have been going up for five years, I suspect we
will be going down for a year and a half."
Housebuilders extended losses after Tuesday's sharp falls,
as Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs issued negative research note
on stocks in the sector on an uncertain market outlook.
Persimmon <PSN.L>, Taylor Wimpey <TW.L>, Barratt
Developments <BDEV.L>, Redrow <RDW.L> and Bovis Homes <BVS.L>
slid by between 7 and 24 percent.
Retailers also suffered as brokers took an axe to earnings
forecasts amid signs the consumer slowdown was deepening. Next
<NXT.L>, Marks & Spencer <MKS.L>, Kingfisher <KGF.L> and
Debenhams <DEB.L> fell 1.8 to 9.2 percent.
Cable & Wireless <CW.L> and Johnson Matthey <JMAT.L> fell
after going ex-dividend.
(Additional reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Quentin
Bryar)
