LONDON MARKETS: Burberry Weighs On U.K. Stocks After Earnings
07/11/2012| 05:08am US/Eastern
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By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Luxury retailer Burberry Group PLC led the charge south for U.K. stocks on Wednesday after reporting slowed growth in first quarter, while miners further added pressure.
The FTSE 100 index dropped 0.1% to 5,659.78, partly erasing a 0.7% gain from Tuesday.
Burberry (>> BURY GROU ADR) posted the biggest loss in the index, off 5.5%. The company reported that fiscal first-quarter sales rose but the growth rate lagged that of the year-earlier period. At constant currencies,revenue jumped 11%, but that rate slowed from 34% in the year-ago quarter.
For the broader U.K. stock markets, losses keyed off negative trading days in Asia and on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) closed 0.7% lower at 12,653.12, as Alcoa Inc. (>> Alcoa Inc.) dropped 4.1% after reporting earnings late Monday.
Miners further weighed in the U.K. as metals prices were mixed. Vedanta Resources PLC shed 1.1%, Rio Tinto PLC (>> Rio Tinto plc) slipped 0.8% and BHP Billiton PLC (>> BHP Billiton Limited) gave up 0.7%.
Utility firm SSE PLC was also among notable decliners, off 1.3%, after Morgan Stanley cut the stock to underweight from equal-weight. In addition, the bank cut Centrica PLC to equal-weight from overweight, citing tougher competition and the weak economy.
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