U.K. Stocks Retreat, Led by Banks; HBOS, Anglo American Plunge

By Sarah Jones

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. stocks pared gains, led by HBOS Plc, Britain's largest mortgage lender. Anglo American Plc led mining companies lower.

The FTSE 100 Index dropped 19, or 0.4 percent, to 5,006.6 at 2:22 p.m. in London. The measure at one point fell below the 5,000 level for a second day, having earlier rallied as much as 2 percent. The FTSE All-Share Index declined 0.2 percent, while Ireland's ISEQ Index lost 3.5 percent.

HBOS dropped 14 percent to 157.2 pence after climbing as much as 18 percent. Kazakhmys Plc, Kazakhstan's biggest cooper producer, lost 4.8 percent to 672 pence.

Anglo American, the world's fourth-largest diversified mining company, lost 5.8 percent to 2,128 pence.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Jones in London at sjones35@bloomberg.net.