Housebuilders fall as Britain's FTSE slips before U.S. jobs data, Shares of housebuilders fell on Friday following cautious broker comment on the sector, weighing on Britain's equity market as investors took a generally cautious stance before U.S. jobs data later in the day.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.7 percent at 6,527.43 points going into the middle of the trading session. It rose 2.3 percent the previous day as Tesco jumped on a well-received restructuring plan.
Traders attributed the fall in housebuilders to a cautious note from investment bank Jefferies, which said negative newsflow on UK mortgage approvals, weak house price data and lower economic growth would lead to share price weakness in the residential sector in the first quarter of 2015.
Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments and Persimmon - down between 4.5 and 5 percent - were the worst performing FTSE 100 stocks in percentage terms.
"The UK housing market continues to slow, with tighter mortgage rules and affordability constraints as well as the prospect of a rate rise making investors cautious," said Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.
The main market focus was on U.S. non-farm payrolls data due at 1330 GMT. Employers are tipped to have added 240,000 jobs last month, according to a Reuters survey.
