By Atul Prakash and Kit Rees
LONDON (Reuters) - UK housebuilders surrendered part of their hefty gains in afternoon trade on Wednesday after British Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to raise property tax for those who buy a house in order to rent it and on second homes.
The Thomson Reuters UK homebuilding index, which surged nearly 6 percent before Osborne's autumn budget statement in parliament, was up 2.4 percent by 1410 GMT.
Shares in Taylor Wimpey (L:TW), Persimmon (L:PSN), Barratt Developments (L:BDEV) and Berkeley Group were still up 1.0 to 3.4 percent, but off intraday highs.
"Osborne has given with one hand and taken away with the other," Keith Bowman, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (L:HRGV), said.
"He doubled the housing budget, which is a good news and a reason for housebuilders being strong in the first place, but at the same time he has added a new rate of stamp duty for buy-to-let investors."
The UK blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.9 percent at 6,333.27 points.
The travel and leisure sector, under pressure from growing tensions in the Middle East and the downing of a Russian warplane near the Syrian border, was pushed higher by a rally in mid-cap Thomas Cook's shares. The FTSE 350 travel and leisure index advanced 1.7 percent.
The British holiday company soared 9.6 percent after reporting results in line with expectations and saying it was confident in its outlook for 2016, despite cancelled holidays in Egypt after Britain suspended flights to a major resort there. The possible resumption of dividend payouts in 2017 also helped lift the stock.
Some analysts cited concerns over the outlook for the firm.
"We also expect the UK to face a later booking profile as there are simply too many destinations with perceived threats," analysts at HSBC wrote.
Leading the day's decliners, miner Anglo American (L:AAL) fell 7.8 percent after HSBC analysts downgraded their rating on the stock to "reduce" from "hold", saying cost and dividend cutting might not stop cash burn at the company.