LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Under Pressure As BT Pushed Lower

U.K. stocks fell Friday, with a decline in shares of telecom heavyweight BT PLC after its earnings report helping pull the blue-chips market toward a weekly loss.

The FTSE 100 index declined 0.4% to 7,413.16, with less than 10 components moving higher. The blue-chips benchmark was on track for a weekly decline of 0.5%, which would be the first loss in four weeks.

Major benchmark across Europe also opened lower, keying off on losses in Asia and on Wall Street, where tech stocks resumed a selloff (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tech-stocks-poised-to-drive-another-record-day-on-wall-street-led-by-facebook-2017-07-27). After U.S. trading closed, e-commerce behemoth Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) posted a larger-than-expected drop of 77% in second-quarter earnings, hurt by the company's spending (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-earnings-fall-77-shares-drop-2017-07-27).

Back on the FTSE 100, the biggest decliner was BT Group PLC (BT.A.LN) , with shares down 3% after the telecom and TV-services provider posted a slide first-quarter fiscal 2018 net earnings (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bt-earnings-fall-on-higher-costs-backs-guidance-2017-07-28) to GBP285 million from GBP588 million a year earlier. But BT did back its full-year guidance.

Mining shares were under pressure, with Anglo American PLC (AAL.LN) down 1.1% and Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) (RIO) (RIO) off by 1.8%.

The few advancers included International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG.LN) . Shares were up 1.4% as the parent company of British Airways said second-quarter net profit surged 20% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/british-airways-parent-iags-profit-soars-2017-07-28) to EUR540 million ($631 million) on rising ticket prices.

Shares of budget carrier easyJet PLC (EZJ.LN) didn't move up with IAG, as they sagged 0.8%.

Barclays PLC (BCS) (BCS) swung higher, rising 0.8%, even as the bank swung to a second-quarter loss of GBP1.4 billion (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/barclays-swings-to-loss-on-africa-write-down-2017-07-28)($1.83 billion) as it wrote down the value of its Africa operations and took higher provisions for conduct costs.

Meanwhile, the pound bought $1.3074, not far off from $1.3066 in late Thursday's settlement in New York. The pound this week hit a 10-month high above $1.31.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2017 04:03 ET (08:03 GMT)