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Fresnillo, L&G lead FTSE 100 lower for fourth day

Reuters - UK Focus

* FTSE 100 down 0.3 pct

* Fresnillo (Other OTC: FNLPF - news) , L&G (LSE: LGEN.L - news) hit after disappointing results

* Standard Chartered (HKSE: 2888.HK - news) gains on restructuring plan

By Francesco Canepa and Alistair Smout

LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index fell for a fourth straight session on Wednesday, dragged down by disappointing results from precious metals miner Fresnillo and insurer Legal & General.

Appetite for UK stocks was further dampened by data showing growth in Britain's dominant services sector eased in February.

Fresnillo was the top FTSE 100 faller, down 4 percent after its pretax profit dropped 40 percent, hurt by falling gold and silver prices.

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Legal & General fell 2.5 percent after reporting below-forecast 2014 operating profits even as company pension deals gave a boost to annuity sales.

The FTSE 100 index was down 0.3 percent at 6,870.82 points at 1159 GMT, further retreating from an all-time high of 6,974 points set on Monday.

The FTSE has rallied more than 10 percent since mid-January, fuelled by anticipation of the European Central Bank's stimulus programme.

"A lot of the good news seems to be in the price and people are stuggling to find reasosns to push this one up", said Chris Beauchamp, a strategist at IG (LSE: IGG.L - news) , adding the FTSE could drift back to 6,800.

The top riser in the index was British broadcaster ITV , which climbed 5.4 percent after it said it plans to return 250 million pounds ($383.5 million) to shareholders via a special dividend after posting a better-than-expected 2014 profit.

Standard Chartered added 4 percent as investors took heart from the bank's planned restructuring programme despite a 25 percent slump in profits.

"Standard Chartered's results were a slight miss but we think the restructuring is finally starting to take shape and we remain positive for the outlook," Atif Latif, director of Guardian Stockbrokers, said.

So far the earnings season has seen 58 percent of FTSE 100 companies reporting results that have beaten or met expectations.

(Additional reporting by Francesco Canepa; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)