* Energy issues, drugmakers provide support
* Miners under pressure as metals prices fall
* Mobile telecoms heavyweight Vodafone under pressure
By Jon Hopkins
LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Britain's leading shares added 0.1
percent on Friday in very quiet trading, which saw small gains
in energy issues and drugmakers just offset weakness in miners
and banks.
At the close, the FTSE 100 <> index was 7.23 points
higher at 5,161.87 having moved in a narrow 40 point trading
range. For the week, however, the index was up around 3.3
percent, recovering from a fairly cautious start to the month.
"Markets were a bit quieter at the end of a fairly active
week, with a rally by the quality stocks, particularly the banks
and the miners, coming to a halt, and interest limited by a lack
of fresh direction," said Sam Wright, equity trader at Spreadex.
Weak miners were a drag on blue-chip sentiment as metals and
gold prices retreated as a strengthening dollar made commodities
more expensive for investors.
Eurasian Natural Resources <ENRC.L>, Antofagasta <ANTO.L>,
Lonmin <LMI.L> and Xstrata <XTA.L> lost between 0.3 and 1.3
percent. Platinum group Johnson Matthey <JMAT.L> also suffered,
down 2 percent.
The U.S. dollar rose after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke indicated an exit strategy from quantitative easing and
low interest rates as the economy improves. []
Banks were mostly lower, with Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L>,
Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>, and Standard Chartered <STAN.L>
losing 0.3 to 1.3 percent. However HSBC <HSBA.L> and Barclays
<BARC.L> bucked the sector trend, up 0.7 and 0.3 percent.
Pressure remained on Lloyds Banking Group and RBS as the
Financial Times said the British government is to start
examining their loan pricing mechanisms, suspecting that they
are pricing loans to small and medium-sized businesses at levels
which are unaffordable for most smaller institutions.
Mobile telecoms heavyweight Vodafone <VOD.L> was also a big
drag on the blue chips, shedding 1.6 percent, extending recent
falls on concerns over a price war among Indian mobile firms.
Search software firm Autonomy <AUTN.L> was the top FTSE 100
faller, down 2.4 percent as brokers chewed over Thursday's
third-quarter trading update with Piper Jaffray cutting its
stance to "neutral" from "overweight" mainly on valuation.
ENERGY BOOST
The energy sector was firmer as crude prices held above $71
a barrel. Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>, BG Group <BG.L>, and Cairn
Energy <CNE.L> added 0.1 to 1.7 percent, but BP <BP.L> and
Tullow Oil <TLW.L> lost 1.71 to 0.6 percent, respectively.
The Canadian and Alberta governments have promised C$865
million to ($823.8 million) help Royal Dutch Shell develop
carbon capture and storage at its oil sands processing plant, as
they seek to meet goals to cut emissions and curb global
warming. []
Drugmakers extended recent gains with AstraZeneca <AZN.L>
and GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L> up 0.4 and 0.7 percent respectively,
while Shire <SHP.L>, which missed out on Thursday's rally, added
0.5 percent.
Intercontinental Hotels <IHG.L> added 1.5 percent helped by
upbeat third-quarter results from U.S. peer Marriott
International <MAR.N>, while Whitbread <WTB.L> rose 1.6 percent
aided too by an upgrade to "overweight" by Barclays Capital.
On Wall Street, U.S. bluechips <> were 0.4 percent
higher by London's close on Friday as investors snapped up
technology shares following upbeat broker comments on such
bellwethers as Apple <AAPL.O>. []
On the macro front, the U.S. trade deficit was $30.71
billion in August, down from a slightly revised $31.85 billion
gap in July and below-estimates for a rise to $33 billion.
The UK trade gap, released on Friday was also lower than
forecast at 6.24 billion pounds, the smallest since June 2006.
But UK factory gate inflation unexpectedly turned positive
for the first time in five months, with non-seasonally adjusted
output prices up 0.5 percent in September, taking the annual
rate of wholesale inflation to 0.4 percent. []
(Editing by Rupert Winchester)
