FTSE flat as BHP leads miners; housebuilders’ woe

Britain's leading share index traded flat on Monday as negative data dragged on housebuilders, while BHP Billiton's results buoyed miners. At 0736 GMT the FTSE 100 was down 3.7 points, or 0.1% at 5,451.1 and is now down over 15% for the year to date.
Meaningful direction was difficult to come by with the UK benchmark choppy, trading volumes thin, and a light economic and corporate calendar.
Property firms featured on the downside, after British house prices fell 4.8% year-on-year in August, a survey by property web site Rightmove showed, the fastest fall since the series began six years ago.
Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Barratt Development and Rightmove were down 0.5 to 8.5%.
On the upside, miner BHP Billiton, bidding for rival Rio Tinto in what would be the world's second-biggest takeover, climbed 1.6% after posting a 12.4% rise in full-year net profit to a record $15.4 bln, as Chinese demand stoked a commodities boom.
Other miners to rise included Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Kazakhmys and Xstrata.
In other commodities, Tullow Oil, Royal Dutch Shell and Cairn Energy tacked on between 1.3 and 1.5%, as U.S. crude rose to about $114 a barrel.
The rising energy costs dragged British Airways into the red, as it shed 2.8%.
"It's the miners keeping it up, based on the BHP Billiton figures which were pretty good," said Mark Priest, a senior trader at TradIndex.
"(But) there is not a great deal of individual or economic data and will find it quite difficult to find a direction early on. It's the summer season."
"People are still looking at the price of oil and gold … it's going to be a bit of a steady day compounded by the fact that it is August," he added.
In volatile banks, HBOS tacked on 1.3% after the Australian newspaper reported Commonwealth Bank of Australia may offer the British bank over A$6 bln (US$5.2 bln) for its Australian unit BankWest.
Bradford & Bingley added 0.5% after it said shareholders subscribed to buy almost 28 percent of shares in its 400 mln pound ($749 mln) cash call, broadly in line with market expectations.
Tesco fell 1.7% after the Sunday Telegraph reported that Britain's biggest retailer is in talks to sell up to a dozen of its largest stores in a move that could raise up to 500 mln pounds ($936.2 mln).
Heavyweight Vodafone lost 0.6%. The mobile phone group said it had completed the purchase of a 70% stake in Ghana Telecommunications, Ghana's state-owned phone company.
Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier was down 0.5%. Bidding for the trade-magazines unit being sold, moved into the second round, with a slew of private equity firms keen on the asset.
Among midcaps, Michael Page, the British staffing group which has rejected a 1.3 bln pounds ($2.43 bln) bid approach from Swiss rival Adecco, rose 2.4% after it reported a 22% increase in first-half pretax profit despite weakening trading conditions in some markets.
Woolworths soared 12.3% after the British retailer said on Sunday it had received a proposal by Iceland boss Malcolm Walker to acquire its 815-store retail division but had rejected it. (Reuters)