* Banks higher; Lloyds, RBS up after budget
* Miners up; oil majors down with crude below $81
* Housebuilders gain, main budget winners
By Jon Hopkins
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares added 0.1
percent on Wednesday as strength in miners and banks was
balanced out by weakness in energy issues, with little overall
impact from a UK budget that contained few surprises.
At the close, the FTSE 100 <> was up 4.25 points at
5,677.88, having hit a fresh 21-month intra-day peak at 5,698.87
early in the session before British finance minister Alistair
Darling's 2010 budget, just weeks before an expected election.
"It was not really an eventful budget, with the market going
nowhere in reaction, and investors are now likely to hold fire
as they await a British election announcement, expected
imminently," said Sam Wright, a trader at Spreadex.
Weak energy issues were one of the main curbs on blue chip
sentiment, with the sector retreating after good gains in the
previous session as crude <CLc1> fell below $81 a barrel.
BG Group <BG.L>, Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> and Tullow Oil
<TLW.L> shed 0.2 to 1.5 percent, not helped by budget news that
planned increases in UK fuel duty will continue for one year
from 2014. But peers BP <BP.L> and Cairn Energy <CNE.L> added
0.4 and 0.7 percent, respectively.
Miners were higher as a sector, with Rio Tinto <RIO.L>,
Antofagasta <ANTO.L> and Kazakhmys <KAZ.L> up 0.1 to 1.4
percent, while Anglo American <AAL.L>, ahead 0.9 percent, was
supported by a JPMorgan upgrade to "overweight".
Eurasian Natural Resources <ENRC.L> added 0.6 percent as the
Kazakh-based firm was upbeat on 2010 after posting a drop in
2009 profit. []
Banks also notched up sectorial gains. Lloyds Banking Group
<LLOY.L> and Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L> stood out, up 1.9
and 1.0 percent each, aided by Darling's comments that the
government would sell shares in the two part-nationalised banks
in a way that recoups the money invested.
Lloyds shares were also supported by BofA Merrill Lynch
adding it to its Europe 1 List and hiking its price target.
But global banking heavyweight HSBC <HSBA.L> lost 0.2 as
worries about possible debt exposures shifted to Portugal after
agency Fitch lowered its debt rating for the country to AA- from
AA, with a negative outlook. []
DRUGS IN DEMAND
Pharma stocks also provided a lift for the blue chips, with
heavyweights AstraZeneca <AZN.L> and GlaxoSmithKline <GSK>
gaining 0.6 and 0.7 percent, respectively.
Peer Shire <SHP.L> firmed 2.1 percent as ongoing
manufacturing problems at U.S. rival Genzyme <GENZ.O> boosted
prospects for its enzyme replacement treatments. []
Among individual blue chips gainers, Smiths Group <SMIN.L>
took on 1.5 percent after the technology firm defied tough
trading conditions to report a 12 percent increase in first-half
profit on cost cuts. []
Plumbing supplies group Wolseley <WOS.L> was a big blue chip
loser, down 2.3 percent as UBS cut its rating to "neutral" from
"buy" following recent half-year results.
A broker downgrade also weighed on Johnston Matthey
<JMAT.L>, down 1.6 percent as BofA Merrill Lynch cut its rating
to "neutral" citing valuation grounds.
Aviva <AV.L> was the top FTSE 100 faller, down 4.4 percent,
while BSkyB <BSY.L> and Intercontinental Hotels <IHG.L> also
underperformed as all three traded ex-dividend on Wednesday.
On the second line, housebuilders were the main gainers,
lifted by budget news that the stamp duty limit for first-time
buyers will be doubled to 250,000 pounds for this year and 2011.
Persimmon <PSN.L>, Taylor Wimpey <TW.L>, Redrow <RDW.L>,
Bovis Homes <BVS.L> and Barratt Developments <BDEV.L> added 1.0
to 3.2 percent. Bellway <BWY.L> gained 5.6 percent, also boosted
by positive interim results. []
U.S. blue chips <> were 0.2 percent lower by London's
close, impacted by the Fitch downgrade of Portugal, and after a
Federal Reserve official said it was highly unlikely that U.S.
banks have recognised all their financial losses.
(Editing by David Cowell)
