* FTSE 100 down almost 1 percent
* Energy stocks, miners pressured by demand outlook
* Banks down on economic news, U.S. plan uncertainty
* Defensive drug stocks gain
By Simon Falush
LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index snapped
a five-day winning streak and fell nearly 1 percent by midday on
Tuesday, hit by losses in energy, mining and bank stocks and
anxiety over U.S. bank bail-out and stimulus plans.
By 1205 GMT the FTSE 100 <> was down 33 points at
4,274.61 after gaining 0.4 percent the previous session.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will lay out a bank
rescue plan later Tuesday that will rely on public and private
funds to take $500 billion of bad assets off banks' books,
sources said. []
President Barack Obama took his case for an $800
billion-plus economic stimulus package directly to the
recession-weary American public on Monday as he urged Congress
to approve a final bill before the recession worsened.
[]
However, uncertainty about the timing and detail of the
plans kept investors on edge, leading to a return to risk
aversion.
"A lot of people are pulling their money, waiting on the
touchlines ahead of the stimulus package and bank plan and,
because a lot could go wrong, people are being risk averse,"
said Joshua Raymond, market strategist at City Index.
Miners took most points off the index with metal prices
dented by demand worries. Kazakhmys <KAZ.L> was the biggest
faller, down 9.4 percent, with Xstrata <XTA.L> down 7.8 percent
and Anglo American <AAL.L> off 5.9 percent.
Energy stocks also fell as crude held near $40 per barrel
<CLc1>.
BP <BP.L>, Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> BG Group <BG.L> and
Tullow Oil <TLW.L> fell between 1.4 and 4.1 percent.
Banks were also kept on the back foot by uncertainty over
the U.S. banking plans and the outlook on the UK economy.
"My sense is that people are displaying decreased pessimism,
but there is a huge amount of work to be done with the banks and
we are still in a recession and this means that some bank loans
are going to go wrong," Darren Winder, head of macro and
strategy research at Cazenove said.
Heavyweight HSBC <HSBA.L> fell 2.8 percent, Barclays
<BARC.L> slid 0.7 percent and Standard Chartered <STAN.L> lost
3.4 percent.
In fresh bleak news for the UK economy, house prices fell at
a faster pace in January than in December and the outlook for
prices turned gloomier as the number of completed home sales
fell, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' seasonally
adjusted price balance fell to -76 in January from -74 in
December, suggesting the housing market remains in a very
depressed state. []
However Britain's goods trade deficit with the rest of the
world narrowed to its lowest level in 1-1/2 years, perhaps
because of the weaker pound. []
A survey from the British Retail Consortium showed the value
of like-for-like retail sales rose 1.1 percent in January
compared with a year ago, the first increase in sales values
since May 2008.
The increase, however, was driven by food sales and heavy
price cutting. []
Marks & Spencer <MKS.L> shares fell 1.4 percent after Chief
Executive Stuart Rose admitted making several "basic
shopkeeping" mistakes when it launched its first store in
Shanghai, the Financial Times said. []
Drug stocks were the biggest boon to the index as investors
retreated into sectors seen as safer havens.
GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L> added 2.4 percent, while AstraZeneca
<AZN.L> gained 1.5 percent.
BAE Systems <BAES.L> firmed 0.3 percent after a White House
website said it became the Pentagon's fifth-largest defence
contractor in fiscal 2008, knocking Raytheon Co <RTN.N> out of a
spot it held since at least 2000. []
British Airways <BAY.L> rose 7.3 percent, the highest flier
on the FTSE 100 leaderboard after Merrill Lynch added the
airline to its influential Europe 1 list.
(Editing by David Cowell)
