LONDON: UK shares slipped on Monday as concerns surrounding Britain's European Union referendum weighed on British Land Company, though a rise in mining stocks helped to offset losses.
The FTSE 100 index retreated 0.3 percent to 6,121.63 points by 0910 GMT, slightly outperforming the broader European market.
The declines were broad-based, with property developer British Land among the top fallers, down 1.7 percent after reporting results.
While the company posted a rise in its full-year portfolio value, investors voiced concerns about the impact on the sector of Britain's June 23 referendum on whether to leave the EU.
"Despite a positive overall outlook, the group cites recent slowdown in office occupational demand, likely due to the EU referendum, as well as weaker consumer confidence and retail sales since the beginning of the year," analysts at Liberum said in a note.
"This is the first sign of occupational weakness in the sector and we would expect it to weigh on the shares."
BT Group was also down 1.6 percent, with investors citing a media report on Sunday that three UK broadband operators had called for reforms for BT's Openreach business.
"Any talk of BT having to give up its monopoly on the infrastructure and potentially having to divest Openreach will be seen as a negative driver for the share price," said Dafydd Davies, partner at Charles Hanover Investments.
However, British mining companies were in positive territory as metals prices edged higher. Data showing an improvement in China's property sector offset several softer gauges of China's economy that had raised concerns over the demand prospects for industrial metals.
Anglo American's, Antofagasta, Glencore and BHP Billiton all gained between 1.5 percent and 5.6 percent.
Anglo American jumped after a double upgrade from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which raised its rating on the stock to "buy" from "underperform" and also its target price.
Apart from the blue chips, platinum producer Lonmin surged 14 percent after reporting a first-half core profit of $36 million, up from a loss of $6 million the same time a year ago following cost savings.
"Lonmin's results continue to provide fuel for the idea that the mining sector is past the worst, even if much of the improvement has come from cost-cutting, with platinum prices so far stubbornly refusing to respond," Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at IG, said in a note.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.