RTRS: CORRECTED-FTSE down 1.5% ahead of BoE rate meeting's minutes
FTSE down 1.5 percent
* Heavyweight miners weigh on sentiment
* Caution ahead of Bank of England MPC meeting minutes
* HBOS higher ahead of Lloyds TSB shareholders meeting
By Jon Hopkins
LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index was 1.5 percent lower early on Wednesday as strong gains overnight on Wall Street were offset by caution ahead of the publication of minutes from the Bank of England's November Monetary Policy Committee rate-cutting meeting.
At 0855 GMT the FTSE 100 .FTSE index was 63.48 points lower at 4,145.07 having closed 76.39 points, or 1.9 percent higher on Tuesday.
"Wih the market hugely volatile yesterday there was no conviction in the Far East in spite of Wall Street's gains and as Asian markets came off this has filtered through to the UK market," said David Buik of BGC Partners.
"In very uncertain and volatile times it is impossible to have any correlation between value and sentiment, so sentiment wins every time," Buik added.
Banks were still in focus ahead of Wednesday's meeting of LLoyds TSB LLOYL> shareholders to vote on government funding help and its takeover of HBOS (HBOS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).
HBOS shares were up 7.9 percent, having been the biggest faller yesterday, on hopes that the deal will get approval after many months of wrangling and complications.
Lloyds TSB shares lost 0.8 percent.
"Shareholders would be mad not to vote for the deal," said Buik, "as the alternative will be the nationalisation of HBOS and another trashing of the UK banking sector."
Most other banks were weaker as the financial turmoil continued to take its toll and with JP Morgan cutting its price targets across the sector.
Insurer Legal & General (LGEN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was the biggest blue chip faller, down 9.2 percent as Deutsche Bank cut its target price for the group.
The stock suffered Tuesday after JP Morgan suggested L&G was the insurer most likely to issue a profit warning.
Heavyweight miners were a big drag on the FTSE 100 index as the sector fell back again in line with commodity prices, with Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) shedding 6.3 percent, unsettled by uncertain again over the hoding of its major shareholder Glencore, while Lonmin (LMI.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) dropped 6.7 percent, Vedanta Resources (VED.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) fell 5 percent, and Rio Tinto RIO lost 4.2 percent.
Investors are expected to scan the minutes from the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting for clues on the outlook for interest rates after the BoE shocked the markets with a 1.5 percentage point cut in its base rate to 3 percent.
"Traders are hoping that the BOE has left the door open to another rate cut, as the crumbling economy needs even more help from the government," said David Evans, market analyst at BetOnMarkets.com in a note to clients. "The tone of the day depends on how favourable the minutes are."
The market will also get CBI industrial trends data later on Wednesday.
Credit information firm Experian (EXPN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was the top FTSE 100 riser, up 9.9 percent afetr issuing robust first-half results and saying third-quarter revenue growth should also be solid.
Ex-dividend factors took 12.52 points off the blue chip index Wednesday, with J Sainsbury, (SBRY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Vodafone (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Cable & Wireless (CW.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Carnival (CCL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Thomson Reuters (TRIL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) all losing their payout attractions. (Editing by Greg Mahlich)
