Shares in London dropped again on Friday, with some of the FTSE 100’s biggest mining groups helping to push the index to its lowest finish in two weeks.
The FTSE 100 fell 22.9 points, or 0.30%, to end the day at 7,572.58. Fresnillo, Glencore and Anglo American were among the biggest losers.
It put the index on a par with its rivals in Europe. Frankfurt’s Dax index finished down 0.22%, while the Cac 40 in Paris had dropped 0.24%.
As markets were closing in Europe New York’s S&P 500 had gained 0.27%, while the Dow Jones was 0.36% lower.
“While the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 are making new record highs, the latter topping the 5,000 mark, European stock indices found it difficult to keep up and have had a slightly negative end to the week,” said Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG.
“The FTSE 100 in particular suffered a third straight day of losses ahead of next week’s UK unemployment, inflation, fourth quarter GDP and retail sales data.”
On currency markets the pound had gained 0.07% against the dollar at 1.2626 and had risen 0.05% against the euro at 1.1712.
In company news, Barclays said that it would buy the retail banking operations of Tesco Bank for £600 million.
It will give Barclays the supermarket brand’s credit cards, loans, savings and banking operations.
It will also add around 2,800 staff to the Barclays payroll. Shares in the bank closed down 0.61%.
Elsewhere, Bellway said that it had seen a 30% drop in revenue to £1.25 billion in the six months to the end of January.
But lower mortgage rates had encouraged buyers back into the market, the business said and its reservation rate per outlet per week – a key metric for the industry – has risen since last January.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were DS Smith, up 7.6p to 316.2p, Entain, up 23.9p to 1,010.5p, Pershing Square, up 74p to 3,942p, ConvaTec, up 4.4p to 239p, and Persimmon, up 23.5p to 1,400.5p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Land Securities, down 21.8p to 628.4p, Fresnillo, down 16.5p to 476.7p, Legal & General, down 7.5p to 233.8p, Glencore, down 11.75p to 385.05p, and British American Tobacco, down 63p to 2,421p.