FTSE Modestly Lower As Weak Data Weighs

(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks turned in a mixed performance on Friday with investors largely making cautious moves, after data showed continued contraction in the nation's services sector activity.

Bank stocks shed ground, while miners found modest support.

The benchmark FTSE 100, which advanced to 10,699.13 earlier in the session, was down 26.90 points or 0.25% at 10,625.97 nearly an hour past noon.

Intercontinental Hotels Group shed 2.3%. Diageo, Games Workshop, Entain, Tesco, Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Kingfisher, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury (J) declined by 1.3%-1.7%.

Next, Bunzl, Imperial Brands, British American Tobacco, Lloyds Banking Group, IAG, Babcock International, Barclays and Natwest Group also drifted lower.

ICG, St. James's Place, Weir Group, Lion Finance, Metlen Energy & Metals, SSE, Fresnillo, Aberdeen Group and Smiths Group gained 1%-2%.

National Grid, IMI, Anglo American Plc, Polar Capital Technology Trust, Melrose Industries, Rolls-Royce Holdings and Persimmon also moved higher.

In economic news, data from S&P Global showed the S&P Global UK Composite PMI fell to 49.3 in June from 49.7 in May, revised from the flash estimate of 49.4 for a second month of contraction following 11 months of expansion in the British private sector activity.

The Services sector PMI contracted to 48.8 in June from 49.3 in the previous month, while the Manufacturing sector PMI dropped to 52.5 in the month from May's reading of 53.9.