By Kit Rees and Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) - UK shares retreated on Thursday after a drop in metal and oil prices hit commodity stocks, ending a weak first quarter of 2016 on a downbeat note.
Britain's FTSE 100 (FTSE) was down 25.86 points, or 0.4 percent, at 6,177.31 by 1132 GMT. That left the index down 1 percent in 2016 as the first quarter drew to a close.
The index began the year with steep falls, down over 10 percent by mid-February, as concerns over a weak oil price and fragile growth in China gripped markets.
However, an impressive rebound in commodities since then has helped to buoy the FTSE 100, which has managed a gain of 1.2 percent in March.
Following that strong run, a fall in copper prices to a four-week low weighed on mining companies on Thursday, while energy stocks trimmed 4 points off the index after U.S. crude slid on concerns over a market oversupply.
"The recent rebound in metal and oil looks to be running out of steam with the recent rally looking more like a dead cat bounce," said Manoj Ladwa, head of trading at TJM Partners.
Life insurance company Old Mutual (L:OML), InterContinental Hotels Group (L:IHG) and Wolseley (L:WOS) fell 1.1 to 2 percent after going ex-dividend, taking around 2.3 points off the FTSE 100 index.
However, a rise in summer bookings for tour operator TUI Group sent its shares up over 6 percent after the company said it was on track to meet its annual target.
Shares in cruise company Carnival (L:CCL) also gained 0.6 percent after upgrades following its own well-received results in the previous session.
The UK travel and leisure sector (FTNMX5750) advanced 0.3 percent, touching a two-and-a-half week high earlier in the session.
"(TUI Group) has been hit hard by the deteriorating situation in many key destinations like Turkey, Egypt and North Africa, but a bullish trading outlook this morning - and arguably the fact that the shares had been sold down a little too aggressively – has served to leave the stock trading ... higher," said Tony Cross, market analyst at Trustnet Direct.
Among mid-caps, online retailer AO World (L:AO) jumped 5.6 percent after it said that gaining market share helped to boost UK revenue and EBITDA ahead of its target.
ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon (see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development). In a real-time, multimedia format from 0600 London time through the 1630 closing bell, it will include the best of our market reporting, Stocks Buzz service, Eikon graphics, Reuters pictures, eye-catching research and market zeitgeist. Breaking news and dramatic market moves will continue to be alerted to all clients and we will continue to provide a short opening story and comprehensive closing reports.
If you have any thoughts, suggestions or feedback on this, please email mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com.
Mike Dolan, Markets Editor EMEA.