Britain's FTSE falls as financials, Hargreaves Lansdown lower

* FTSE 100 down 0.8 pct

* Hargreaves Lansdown (LSE: HL.L - news) falls on results

* Banks top sectoral loser

* Miners gain, track copper price

By Kit Rees

LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - UK shares fell on Wednesday, pulled lower by financial stocks including Hargreaves Lansdown , following a mixed earnings update.

British fund firm Hargreaves Lansdown fell over 4 percent, despite saying that first half assets under administration hit a fresh record high on the back of strong new business inflows.

The company's half-year results, however, disappointed some investors, who said the numbers missed expectations.

"Overall this is a poor set of numbers with a miss on earnings and dividend due to lower margin and higher costs," analysts at Bernstein said in a note.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch also cut its target price on the stock.

The UK's blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.8 percent at 5,874.00 points by 0950 GMT, broadly in line with the European market.

British banks were the top sectoral fallers, with Barclays (Swiss: BARC.SW - news) down 3.7 percent and both Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) and HSBC Holdings (HKSE: 0005.HK - news) falling over 2 percent.

The FTSE 350 Banking index fell 2.2 percent, and is currently down around 17.5 percent this year.

"We've seen quite a big revision of expectations where central bank policy is concerned, not just in Europe, but in the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . as well, I think that's really hurting the sector," Chris Beauchamp, analyst at IG (LSE: IGG.L - news) , said, adding that Britain postponing a sale of shares in Lloyds Banking Group (Other OTC: LLOBF - news) and a further deterioration in the global economic outlook were also weighing on the sector.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in mobile communications company Vodafone were pulled 1.8 percent lower after KPN (Amsterdam: KPN.AS - news) , the Netherlands' largest telecommunications company, reported a worse-than-expected drop in fourth-quarter earnings.

In positive territory, however, were British mining stocks, as the price of copper advanced on improving China data showing that its services sector expanded at its fastest pace in six months in January.

Shares in Antofagasta (Other OTC: ANFGY - news) , Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) , Rio Tinto and Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) all climbed between 0.7 percent to 1.8 percent.

(Reporting by Kit Rees Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)