FTSE 100 Down Marginally Around Noon

(RTTNews) - The UK market's benchmark FTSE 100 drifted down a bit on Wednesday despite miners turning in a strong performance. Data showing a slowdown in the nation's services sector growth in the month of November weighed a bit.

The FTSE 100 was down 15.70 points or 0.16% at 9,686.10 a few minutes before noon.

Among the gainers, miners Antofagasta and Fresnillo climbed 4.6% and 2.3%, respectively. Anglo American moved up nearly 2%, Glencore surged 1.75%, and Rio Tinto added about 1.4%.

Berkeley Group Holdings surged 2.1%, Informa gained 1.8%, Babcock International climbed 1.7% and Smiths Group 1.6%. JD Sports Fashion Group, Halma, Games Workshop,Vodafone Group, Melrose Industries and Airtel Africal also posted notable gains.

Sainsbury (J) drifted down 3.8%, while Metlen Energy & Metals, ICG, Marks & Spencer, Barratt Redrow, Beazley, 3i Group, Schroders, Easyjet, WPP and BT Group lost 1 to 2.3%.

Data from S&P Global showed the S&P Global UK Composite PMI fell to 51.2 in November from 52.2 in the previous month, revised higher from the preliminary estimate of 50.5 but still below the initial market expectations of 51.8. It reflected the seventh consecutive month of expansion in the UK's private sector activity.

The expansion in the services sector slowed to 51.3 from 52.3 in October, while the manufacturing sector recorded its first expansion in 14 months, with the PMI coming in at 50.2 for the month, up from 49.7 in October.