By Kit Rees
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top share index dipped on Friday as disappointing results weighed on banking heavyweight Barclays (L:BARC), with UK blue chips on track for their biggest one-month loss since November 2016.
The blue chip FTSE 100 (FTSE) index was down 0.2 percent at 7,220.13 points by 0920 GMT, in line with a broader fall across European equity markets.
Shares in Barclays (L:BARC) dropped more than 4 percent, putting the bank on track for its biggest one-day loss since the aftermath of Britain's referendum vote to leave the European Union last June.
While Barclays' first quarter profit more than doubled, a weak performance at its investment banking arm disappointed as the bank missed out on a bond trading boom which boosted bond trading revenues at its U.S. peers.
The U.S. accounts for 34 percent of Barclays' revenue, its second-biggest region after the UK.
"Taking a bit of a longer-term view, Barclays is still in a state of recovery and is moving towards its goal of being a UK retail bank and a transatlantic corporate bank, but this particularly quarter I think the results were a little bit disappointing compared to what analysts were expecting," Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV), said.
Barclays results contrast with well-received updates from peers Lloyds (L:LLOY) and RBS (L:RBS), which gained 2 percent after reporting its results for the first quarter.
Shares in Mediclinic (L:MDCM) dropped more than 5 percent, pulling back after a 17.5 percent jump in the previous session after Abu Dhabi cancelled a 20 percent co-payment requirement for treatment at private facilities.
Miners were among the top gainers, however, with Antofagasta (L:ANTO), BHP Billiton (L:BLT), Rio Tinto (L:RIO), Glencore (L:GLEN) and Anglo American (L:AAL) all up between 1.9 percent to 2.3 percent as the price of copper edged higher. [MET/L]
Shares in Micro Focus (L:MCRO) jumped 1.5 percent, supported by a positive note from Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) which began its coverage of the British mainframe computers operator with a "buy" rating.
"Micro Focus' strategy is to acquire mature software assets at attractive valuations with significant scope for operational and cost improvement," analysts at Deutsche Bank said in a note.
"We believe the current share price applies a conservative discount to the proposed synergies from the HP Software deal," Deutsche Bank analysts added.
The FTSE 100 index was set to post a monthly decline of 1.4 percent, its biggest since last November, struggling in April after British Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap general election which has kept sterling at 6-month highs.
Coupled with uncertainty around Brexit negotiations, a stronger currency has weighed on the index's dollar-earning firms, which enjoyed an accounting boost after sterling's 8 percent plunge in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote.
The UK's GDP reading for the first quarter also came in weaker than expected as a rise in inflation hit consumer-facing businesses, with the economy slowing sharply.
"For the same reason that the weakening pound meant a rising stockmarket after Brexit, a rising pound has meant a bit of a fall back in the stockmarket since the election was announced," Hargreaves Lansdown's Khalaf said.