* FTSE 100 down 0.1 pct
* Heavyweight pharmas weigh
* Higher energy price, strong results buoy energy stocks
* Taylor Wimpey H1 profits drop
By Michael Taylor
LONDON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Britain's leading shares fell by
midday on Wednesday, undercut by weaker drugmakers, while oil
shares tracked rising U.S. crude prices.
At 1108 GMT the FTSE 100 <> was down 6.7 points, or 0.1
percent at 5,464.0. The UK's bluechip index is now down about 15
percent this year on fears of a recession, concerns over rising
commodity prices and the impact of a global credit crunch.
Pharmaceuticals suffered as traders said investors were
switching from the sector, which has been the best performer in
Europe so far this year. GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L> lost 1.6
percent and AstraZeneca <AZN.L> dipped 1.1 percent.
On the upside, heavyweight oil shares were in demand as
crude prices <CLc1> traded towards $118 a barrel and after oil
explorer Tullow Oil <TLW.L> said net profit from continued
activities more than doubled in the first half of the year to
126 million pounds helped by higher oil prices.
Tullow Oil tacked on 1.6 percent. []
Oil and gas services firm Petrofac <PFC.L> also reported
better-than-expected first-half net profit up 57 percent from a
year ago and its shares rose 4.4 percent.
BP <BP.L>, Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>, gas producer BG Group
<BG.L> and Cairn Energy <CNE.L> put on 0.4 to 3.4 percent.
In other commodities, miner Antofagasta <ANTO.L> posted an
8.8 percent rise in first-half earnings per share, helped by
higher copper output and prices which outweighed rising costs.
Its stock was up 3.1 percent.
"We have some reasonably big companies reporting today, the
likes of Antofagasta and Tullow Oil, but in some way no great
surprises. The stocks are reacting as you might expect," said
Tim Hughes, head of sales trading.
Hughes said trading volume was light because many traders
and fund managers were on holiday, leaving the market with
little direction.
On the economic front, traders will eye U.S. durable goods
data for July, due at 1230 GMT, for a further clues on the
health of the world's largest economy.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said on Tuesday that 117
U.S. banks were on its troubled banks list at the end of the
second quarter, up from 90 after the first three months.
In the UK, banks were mixed, with Barclays <BARC.L> and HSBC
<HSBA.L> losing 0.1-0.2 percent, while Royal Bank of Scotland
<RBS.L> and HBOS <HBOS.L> added 0.2-0.9 percent.
TAYLOR WIMPEY DOWN
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey <TW.L> shed 5.8 percent after the
mid-cap firm reported a sharp fall in first-half profit and said
it was scrapping its interim dividend due to challenging market
conditions in the UK, U.S. and Spain.
Other housebuilders also took a beating, with Persimmon
<PSN.L>, Bovis Homes <BVS.L> and Barratt Developments <BDEV.L>
slipping between 2.8 and 3.9 percent.
Among individual stocks, Liberty International <LII.L>,
Capita Group <CPI.L>, InterContinental Hotels <IHG.L> and
Admiral Group <ADML.L> fell after going ex-dividend.
G4S <GFS.L>, the world's biggest security and guarding firm
by value, rose 4.5 percent as it met expectations with a
26-percent rise in first-half operating profit and said it
remained confident for the full year. []
Britain's second-biggest pubs group Enterprise Inns <ETI.L>
lost 6.8 percent to top the FTSE 100 losers, dragged down by a
downgrade from Cazenove to "underperform" from "in-line".
"Look at the volumes," said David Buik at BGC Partners.
"People are nervous and fractious...we are in a bear-squeeze
trading market."
"People are getting confused about what looks cheap and good
value, and what sentiment is. Sentiment is dreadful."
"There is very little logic behind it. We will see a market
that bobs up and down like a cork in a bath for the next three
months until we get close to the banks telling us 'we have
quantified our losses, it's business as usual'." Buik added.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by David Cowell)
