London’s top stock index had a quiet day on Monday as it settled down after hitting its highest point in eight months last week.
The FTSE 100 fell 4.87 points, or 0.06%, to end the day at 7,722.55.
It came as falls among some of the water companies – Severn Trent and United Utilities – were offset partly by rises for cigarette companies Imperial Brands and British American Tobacco.
“The FTSE 100 continued to retrace its recent gains on Monday, though the selling is confined to specific names such as BT and Phoenix Group, both of which had poor news this morning,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG.
“Having touched an eight-month high last week, this looks more like consolidation rather than a full-blown reversal.”
At the end of the day in Europe Frankfurt’s Dax index rose fell 0.02%, while the Cac 40 in Paris had closed down 0.20%.
In New York a little while after markets had closed in Europe the S&P 500 had gained 0.78%, while the Dow Jones was 0.36% higher.
On currency markets the pound was trading 0.07% lower against the dollar at 1.2725 and had risen 0.01% against the euro at 1.1704.
In company news, shares in Currys rose 5.42% after the electronics retailer said that it thinks profit will be higher than previously signalled.
Like-for-like sales have grown since early January, despite dropping over Christmas, and pre-tax profit is now expected to be at least £115 million in the year to the end of April. The business had previously guided £105-115 million profit.
Last week Currys shares dipped after two companies walked away from potentially taking over the retailer.
Elsewhere shares in Marshalls dropped 8.53% after the building materials company downgraded its forecasts for the year.
It said the market is likely to stay “subdued” in the first half of this year and the recovery will be slower than previously thought.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Beazley, up 19.5p to 676.5p, British American Tobacco, up 58.5p to 2,399p, Beazley, up 89p to 4,575p, IAG, up 36p to 1,883p, and Rentokil, up 26p to 1,609p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Phoenix Group, down 22.7p to 481.7p, Vodafone, down 2.52p to 67.33p, BT, down 3.9p to 104.65p, Prudential, down 32p to 1,026.5p, and Antofagasta, down 25.5p to 1,921.75p.