British stocks down 1.94 pct Thursday

LONDON, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- British stocks decreased on Thursday, with the benchmark FTSE 100 Index down by 1.94 percent, or 138.81 points, to close at 7,006.93 points.

Fresnillo, a Mexican-based precious metals mining company, soared 8.65 percent, the top gainer of the blue chips. Randgold Resources and Ocado Group increased by 8.36 percent and 2.23 percent, respectively.

Barratt Developments, one of the largest residential property development companies in the UK, was the worst performer in the blue chips, with its shares losing 12.14 percent.

Hargreaves Lansdown, a financial service company, dropped 5.01 percent. 3i Group, a multinational private equity and venture capital company, fell 4.84 percent. Enditem