RTRS: FTSE off 1.7 pct as banks, commodity stocks slide
By Simon Falush
LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Britain's leading share index had fallen 1.9 percent by midday on Monday as weak housing data and continuing jitters over the financial sector hit banks, and energy and mining stocks fell on lower commodity prices.
By 1145 GMT the FTSE 100 .FTSE was down 73.41 points at 4,159.56 after closing down 1.5 percent on Friday.
The gloom surrounding the UK economy deepened further as data from property Web site Rightmove showed home sellers cutting asking prices in England and Wales by 2.9 percent in November. [ID:nLD755943]
Britain will suffer its sharpest economic contraction in almost two decades next year and the number of people out of work could rise to nearly 3 million by 2010, the Confederation of British Industry said. [ID:nLE563822] "The market is in a general malaise at the moment ... it's pricing in a lot of bad news but volumes are low and investors have shut up shop," said Graham Secker, UK equity strategist at Morgan Stanley.
Banks were the heaviest losers with Lloyds TSB (LLOY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) losing 10.9 percent, HBOS (HBOS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) off 10.4 percent and Standard Chartered (STAN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) down 3.7 percent.
"People are reappraising the sector and worried about more skeletons in the closet. It's a case of shoot first and ask questions later," said Secker.
Energy stocks fell as the price of oil CLc1 was hovering near its lowest in almost two years, weighed down by concerns about global demand with Japan unexpectedly sinking into recession in the third quarter.
BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) fell 0.2 percent, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) lost 2.7 percent while Cairn Energy slid 0.7 percent.
Similarly, miners were hit by lower metals prices.
Lonmin (LMI.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Anglo American (AAL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) fell between 1.4 and 5.4 percent.
Leaders of the world's largest 20 economies meeting in Washington over the weekend agreed on a host of steps to rescue the global economy from the financial crisis.
But they left it to individual governments to tailor their response to their circumstances.
"There were lots of nice words but there was not significant concrete action that the markets could look to," said Keith Bowman, equity strategist at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Midcap housebuilders gained, flying in the face of the weak property data, as takeover speculation boosted the hard-hit sector.
Taylor Wimpey (TLW.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) added 10.3 percent after an Observer newspaper report on Sunday said U.S. private equity groups are thinking about making a full bid or taking a minority stake as part of a restructuring deal. [ID:nLG340628]
Heavily sold interdealer broker ICAP (IAP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) gained 3.8 percent after the Times reported that chief executive Michael Spencer will report on Tuesday that interdealer brokers are not running out of steam.
Midcap rival Tullet Prebon (TLPR.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) gained 6.3 percent after Citigroup upgraded its rating to "buy" from "sell". (Editing by Greg Mahlich)
