London shares close lower

London shares closed down slightly on Wednesday as a bounceback in the Standard Chartered share price helped offset the impact of earlier losses in Asian markets.

The benchmark FTSE 100 index finally ended a quiet session 0.54 percent lower at 5,833.04 points

"European stock indices are following their Asian counterparts lower," noted Rabobank analyst Jane Foley.

"Investors' enthusiasm has been dampened as the better-than-expected US retail sales data yesterday gave way to concern that Fed Chairman (Ben) Bernanke was now less likely to signal further" injections of cash stimulus.

However, Standard Chartered was the star performer, jumping 4.42 percent -- or 60.50 pence -- to 1,437.5 pence.

The bank's share price had plunged on August 7, closing down almost 17 percent to 1,223.57 pence, after New York state regulators accused it of hiding transactions with Iranian banks. It rebounded strongly in the following days.

Overnight, Standard Chartered agreed to pay a fine of $340 million to the state regulator following allegations that it hid 60,000 transactions with proscribed Iranian clients worth $250 billion over ten years.

"Standard Chartered's battle with the regulators appears to be over for now," said Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG Index traders.

"The shares have risen after this development, continuing to claw back the losses sustained after the story broke," said Beauchamp.

Resolution was also in demand after the insurance giant announced structural changes, dealers said.

The insurance giant was up 3.59 percent -- or 7.90 pence -- to close at 227.90.

Eurasian Natural Resources was the biggest casualty as the African-focused miner saw its profits hit by falling commodity prices.

The copper giant also cut its dividend and those forced a sell-off and the share price tumbled 8.8 percent -- or 36.50 pence -- to 378.20 pence.

Peer Rio Tinto was also under heavy selling pressure as it went ex-dividend, meaning that the stock no longer carries the right to the most recently declared dividend. Shares dropped 3.50 percent -- or 110.07 pence -- to close at 3,033.50 pence.

Lloyds remained the most traded issue with 90.4 million units being exchanged in the beleaguered lender. A lot further back was telecom giant Vodafone, which saw 67.4 million shares being exchanged in quiet trade

On currency markets, sterling increased to $1.5686 at 5:12 pm from $1.5661 a day earlier and edged up to 1.2769 euros from 1.2691 euros at the same time on Tuesday night.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/london-shares-close-lower-165127431.html

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