FTSE 100 seen lower after flat finish on Wall Street, Asian stocks climb

The FTSE 100 is set to move slightly lower in early trade today to give up the 0.1% gain it made yesterday with insurance stocks driving the upward movement in the market to balance out weakness in the mining and energy sectors.
Insurance focused investor Resolution added 5% to take the lead in the index, followed by oil and gas engineering group Petrofac (LSE: PFC), which advanced 4%. Home Retail Group (LSE: HOME) added 3.5%, while Legal & General (LSE: LGEN), hedge fund manager Man Group (LSE: EMG) and retailer Marks and Spencer (LSE: MKS) climbed 2.7%, 2.3% and 2% respectively.
Oil and gas services firm Amec (LSE: AMEC), airline British Airways (LSE: BAY) and quality and safety services provider Intertek (LSE: ITRK) shed more than 1.5%. Gold miner Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS) lost 1.5%, while base metal miner Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED), pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN), tour company Thomas Cook (LSE: TCG) and interdealer broker ICAP (LSE: IAP) were down 1.4%.
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day 0.1% below the opening level, while the broader S&P 500 index was flat. The technology focused NASDAQ composite added 0.25%.
Asian stocks posted modest gains today. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng inched 0.1% higher, China’s Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.5%, South Korea’s KOSPI was marginally higher, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index went against the tide, slipping 0.2% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.25%.
Commodities
Oil prices declined with April Brent Crude sliding to US$80.20/barrel, while US light, sweet crude dropped to US$81.54/barrel.
Precious metals were sharply lower as gold declined to US$1,121/oz and silver and platinum were down to US$17.17/oz and US$1,583/oz.
Base metals followed. Copper and nickel retreated to US$3.38/lb and US$10.03/lb, while zinc slid to US$1.05/lb.
The British Retail Consortium said that UK retail sales rose 2.2% on a like to like basis in February form the previous month. UK trade and US consumer confidence updates are due out today.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/14176/ftse-100-seen-lower-after-flat-finish-on-wall-street-asian-stocks-climb-14176.html