U.K. stocks choppy; miners rise, oil firms drop By Preeti Upadhyaya, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) — The U.K. index struggled to find direction on Thursday, as miners rose but oil firms and banks weighed on stocks. The FTSE 100 UK:UKX -0.08% was slightly lower at 5,830.37. Miners led the index, with Vedanta Resources PLC UK:VED +1.25% and Kazakhmys PLC UK:KAZ +1.75% both picking up 1.3%. Anglo American PLC UK:AAL +0.83% rose 0.9% and BHP Billiton PLC UK:BLT +0.67% BHP -1.04% edged up 0.8%. Polymetal International PLC UK:POLY +2.34% added 1.6% and Randgold Resources Ltd. UK:RRS +1.31% was up 1.1%. Metals prices were mixed. Steel firm Evraz PLC UK:EVR +2.93% climbed 1.9%. Moving in the opposite direction, oil major BG Group PLC UK:BG -1.33% slipped 1.4% after Morgan Stanley downgraded it to equalweight from overweight, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Oil prices were slightly lower. On the data front in the U.K., the Office for National Statistics said retail sales for July rose 0.3% on the month and increased 2.8% compared to the same month last year. See: U.K. July retail sales up; no impact from Olympics. Banks were also on the move down, with Standard Chartered PLC UK:STAN -0.77% leading the trend, falling 0.5%. Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC UK:RBS +0.05% RBS -0.29% dropped 0.4% and Barclays PLC UK:BARC -0.22% BCS -0.52% shed 0.3%. HSBC Holdings PLC UK:HSBA -0.07% HBC +0.05% eased 0.2%. Among other notable losers, insurance firm Admiral Group PLC UK:ADM -1.61% lost 1.7% and cruise-ship operator Carnival PLC UK:CCL -1.73% CCL -0.91% was off 1.6%. Preeti Upadhyaya is a MarketWatch reporter, based in London.

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