By Dominic Lau
LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index fell
0.7 percent by midday on Monday, losing ground for a fifth
straight session and tracking sharp losses in the U.S. and Asia,
as growth concerns weighed on commodity shares.
By 1041 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was down 42.2 points at
5,853.3 after losing 0.9 percent last week. The UK benchmark
index has fallen 9.5 percent so far this year.
"We are not into the first-quarter earnings seasion and the
early signs haven't been particularly encouraging. There is more
weak results from the likes of Wachovia," said Richard Hunter,
head of UK equities at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Wachovia <WB.N>, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, posted a
surprise first-quarter loss, hurt by credit problems, and said
it would cut its dividend and raise capital.
European shares were also weaker by mid-session, while U.S.
stocks slumped on Friday after disappointing earnings from
General Electric <GE.N> and weak U.S. consumer sentiment.
Miners were the biggest losing sector, shaving 17 points off
the index, as metal prices fell. Lonmin <LMI.L> shed 2.7
percent, Kazakhmys <KAZ.L> dropped 2.3 percent, Eurasian
National Resources <ENRC.L> fell 3.4 percent, Xstrata <XTA.L>
lost 2.6 percent and Vedanta Resources <VED.L> slipped 2.7
percent.
Oil shares also suffered, tracking lower crude prices
<CLc1>. BP <BP.L> was down 0.3 percent, Royal Dutch Shell
<RDSa.L> slipped 0.9 percent and Cairn Energy <CNE.L> dropped
3.8 percent.
U.S. retail sales, due at 1230 GMT, will provide a further
gauge of the strength of the world's largest economy. Economists
in a Reuters survey expected the reading to be unchanged versus
a 0.6 percent fall in February.
JPMorgan <JPM.N>, Merrill Lynch <MER.N> and Citigroup <C.N>
are also set to report first-quarter earnings this week.
In the UK, banks were weaker, with Royal Bank of Scotland
<RBS.L>, Barclays <BARC.L>, HSBC <HSBA.L>, Standard Chartered
<STAN.L>, Alliance & Leicester <ALLL.L> and Lloyds TSB <LLOY.L>
all up.
HBOS <HBOS.L> bucked the downtrend, up 2.4 percent which
traders attributed to short-covering after recent weakness.
Sage Group <SGE.L> shed 4.3 percent to top the losers' list
on the FTSE 100 after Britain's biggest software company issued
a trading statement that disappointed analysts. Some said the
firm's operational and acquisition risk remained high.
British Airways <BAY.L> slipped 2 percent after Morgan
Stanley cut its rating on the airline to "undwerweight" from
"equal weight" and slashed its price target.
Among mid-caps, Mitchells & Butlers <MAB.L> rose 3.8 percent
after it said a number of private equity firms had offered to
take a stake in it and it was interested in buying Punch
Tavern's managed pub division. Punch advanced 2.7 percent.
Enodis <ENO.L> put on 5.2 percent after U.S. Manitowoc
<MTW.N> said it had agreed to acquire the British food equipment
maker for around $1.9 billion.
