FTSE falls on miners and banks but ITV stars
The top share index dipped early on Tuesday as banks fell after Switzerland's UBS posted worse-than-expected quarterly results and miners tracked weaker metal prices, though ITV gained on lingering bid talk.
FTSE gains as metals spur minersBy 9:02 a.m., the FTSE 100 .FTSE was down 35.1 points, or 0.6 percent, at 5,506.7, after gaining 1 percent on Monday. The benchmark is down nearly 15 percent for the year.
Banks were among standout losers after UBS, which has been Europe's hardest-hit victim of the credit crunch so far, reported a second quarter net loss of 358 million Swiss franc ($332 million), slightly worse than expected.
"It is a bit of a wake up call that we are not out of the woods yet," said Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG Index.
Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS, Lloyds TSB and Standard Chartered were down 0.3 to 3.3 percent.
The Financial Times said nearly 60 percent of U.S. and European institutional investors surveyed by Greenwich Associates believed another big financial firm would collapse within the next six months in the continued fallout from the credit crunch.
"The UBS loss does make a difference on sentiment," said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners, but added that markets would focus on UK inflation data.
Consumer prices data for July, due at 9:30 a.m., will give a further indication of the inflationary picture.
According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, house prices fell slightly less than expected in the three months to July but the number of completed sales per surveyors fell to their lowest in at least 30 years.
Another survey showed commercial building activity in Britain continued to contract sharply in July but property developers were slightly less gloomy about the future than a month earlier.
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