LONDON (AFP) ? London stocks closed lower on Thursday, with traders edgy after the White House failed to resolve a budget crisis and news came of a fresh earthquake in Japan.
Obama is to meet again with congressional leaders at 1700GMT (1800 BST) as he desperately seeks to broker an 11th-hour budget deal amid a looming government shutdown.
A 7.1-magnitude quake hit north-east Japan at 1432 GMT prompting Japanese authorities to issue a localised tsunami alert, which has now been lifted.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England has announced that it is keeping its key lending rate at a record-low 0.50 percent.
London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares slipped 0.56 percent to 6,007.37 points.
Lloyds Banking Group was the most-traded stock of the day, with 124 million shares traded, followed by Royal Bank of Scotland with 74.5 million shares changing hands.
Equipment hire firm Aggreko made the day's biggest gains, adding 22 pence -- 1.31 percent -- to finish at 1696.
It was followed by HSBC which gained 6.8 pence -- 1.03 percent -- to close at 667.2.
Meanwhile engineering group GKN made the sharpest losses of the day, shedding 9.3 pence -- 4.45 percent -- to finish at 199.9.
It was followed by ITV which lost 2.75 pence, or 3.5 percent, to finish at 75.85.
On the currency markets, a pound was worth $1.6303, or 1.1410 euros, at 1724 BST.
Powered By iWebRSS.com
precious metals investing in gold investing in silver bullion investing stocks
