RTRS: FTSE slips 0.4 pct ahead of U.S. jobs report
Britain's top share index was lower midday on Friday, following the previous day's sharp gains and ahead of the latest U.S. jobs report, with defensive food retailers, cigarette makers and drugmakers taking a beating. By 1057 GMT, the FTSE 100 .FTSE was down 15.51 points, or 0.4 percent, at 4,109.46 in choppy trade, swinging from a low of 4,093.31 to a high of 4,132.93.
On Thursday, the UK index rallied 4.3 percent, lifted by hopes that the G20 meeting outcome would help tackle the financial crisis and that a relaxation of accounting rules in the United States would ease the strain for banks.
The FTSE 100 closed above the 4,000 level for the first time in 6 weeks, but is still down 7 percent for the year.
Defensive stocks, such as food retailers, cigarette makers, drugmakers and utilities, took a beating as the index rallied 19 percent from its low hit on March 9.
Tesco (TSCO.L), Morrison Supermarkets (MRW.L), AstraZeneca (AZN.L), British American Tobacco (BATS.L) and National Grid (NG.L) slipped 1.6 to 4.8 percent.
The U.S. employment picture remained grim after the White House said the United States was set to report the economy suffered "additional severe job cuts" in March.
Analysts polled by Reuters, before the White House comments, expected 650,000 jobs would be lost, similar to the 651,000 shed in February, when the report is released at 1230 GMT.
Stephen Pope, chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald, said the market had factored in the job losses.
"There is sufficient sort of numbers out there that we had recently to give you an indication that market sentiment is turning," Pope said.
In the UK, house prices fell 1.9 percent in March, taking the three-month annual rate of decline to 17.5 percent -- the first improvement on this measure since August 2007, according to the Halifax house price survey. [ID:nL3614376]
Meanwhile, the rate of contraction in Britain's service sector eased in March to its slowest for six months, though companies shed jobs at their fastest pace for over a decade, a survey showed.
