U.K. Stocks Erase Gains; Barclays, Mitchells & Butlers Fall

U.K. stocks erased earlier gains. Mitchells & Butlers Plc, the owner of the O'Neill's pub chain, and Barclays Plc dropped. Alliance & Leicester Plc paced advancing shares.

The benchmark FTSE 100 Index lost 22.5, or 0.4 percent, to 6,280.70 at 9:59 a.m. in London, having earlier risen as much as 0.9 percent. The FTSE All-Share Index dropped 11.89, or 0.4 percent, to 3,207.64.

Mitchells & Butlers dropped 4 percent to 596 pence. Barclays, the U.K.'s third-biggest bank, retreated 2.2 percent to 542 pence.

Alliance & Leicester, the country's second-worst performing bank stock this year, gained 7.5 percent to 683 pence.
irs-finance-advise.com