By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Severn Trent PLC led U.K.
stocks to mild losses on Wednesday after a potential offer from a
consortium of multinational funds fell through.
The FTSE 100 index lost 0.1% to 6,337.22, adding to a 0.9% loss
from Tuesday.
Data on Wednesday from the Office for National Statistics showed
the U.K. unemployment rate stayed at 7.8% from February to April as
expected, while total pay rose by 1.3% compared with the same
period last year.
Among notable movers in the index, shares of Severn Trent PLC
sank 8.1% after the consortium seeking to buy the water utility on
Tuesday decided to walk away from a potential deal, after three
previous conditional offers were rejected.
Vodafone (VOD) fell 0.3% after confirming it made a preliminary
approach about making an offer for Kabel Deutschland Holding AG , a
German TV and Internet provider. There is no certainty that an
offer will be made.
J Sainsbury PLC slipped 0.4% after the supermarket retailer
reported a slowdown in sales growth in the first quarter.
Shares of Antofagasta PLC gained 1.4% after the miner said its
2013 performance so far is in line with forecasts made earlier in
the year.
Other miners were also mostly higher, recovering from losses
seen the prior day. Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) put on 0.6% and BHP
Billiton PLC (BHP) gained 0.4%. Metals prices were mixed.
Outside the main index in London, shares of Daily Mail &
General Trust PLC dropped 1.8% after Barclays cut the firm to
underweight from equal weight.
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