London’s top-flight began Thursday’s session on the back foot ahead of a European rate decision and as jitters over Greece continued.
The FTSE 100 Index extended early losses to trade 44.38 points adrift at 6636.17 in mid-morning trading in London.
Europe’s finance chiefs meet later today to discuss interest rates, and whilst Greek debt talks remain at an impasse, the outlook remains negative.
In America last night US stocks were positive, after the Federal Reserve boosted the market.
Fed chairwomen Janet Yellen and her economists indicated that US interest rates may rise at a slower pace than the market had been expecting.
The Dow Jones ended Wednesday around 30 points higher at 17,935, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each moved around 0.2% higher to 2,100 and 5,064 respectively.
In the key commodities markets Brent crude was priced just below US$64, while WTI was just under US$60. At US$1,188 per ounce the gold price was up about 1%.
Connor Campbell at spreadbetting firm Spreadex said: "The FTSE has already grazed fresh five-month lows this morning, a situation that could worsen as the day goes on."
In London, retail sales figures were set to provide the economic focus but forecasts suggest they were unlikely to give a significant boost to markets.
On the equity markets, Poundland (LON:PLND) was 10.3p down at 300.8p after the discount retailer racked up record sales but arned that first half results this year will be ‘relatively subdued’.
Gaming software group Playtech (LON:PTEC) was off 20.5p at 787.5p after announcing a placing to raise £250mln to fund acquisitions including online trading platform Plus500.
Housebuilder Berkeley Group (LON:BKG) fell 88p to 3393p as Liberum Capital downgraded the stock to 'hold' after results on Wednesday, saying the shares had hit fair value.
Model railway maker Hornby (LON:HRN) chugged 4.88p lower to 94.25p after it said it was moving to the AIM market and raising £15mln in a placing.
Personal health monitoring group Fitbug (LON:FITB) ticked up 0.18p to 4.75p as it announced an agreement with inflight retail specialist, Scorpio Worldwide, to include a Fitbug/Kiqplan product bundle within its range of products promoted to major airlines.
Elsewhere, investors in oil explorers involved in the Horse Hill project near Gatwick Airport in East Sussex gave a mixed reaction to news that the find may contain more than 9.2bn barrels of oil.
Shares in Horse Hill stakeholders Solo Oil (LON:SOLO) fell 0.02p to 0.49p, while shares in Doriemus (LON:DOR), Alba Minerals (LON:ALBA), Stellar Resources (LON:STG) were all flat. Another Horse Hill player, Evocutis (LON:EVO), lifted 0.01p to 0.22p.
There was also a varied response from investors in Europa Oil & Gas (LON:EOG), Egdon Resources (LON:EDR) and Union Jack Oil (LON:UJO) to news that production testing had begun at the onshore Wressle discovery well in Lincolnshire. Europa's stock dropped 0.25p to 7.88p, but Egdon's shares jumped 1.5p to 15.25p and UJO's shares lifted 0.01p to 0.22p.
News that Haydale (LON:HAYD) had landed a deal to supply its reactor to an organisation looking to commercialise graphene boosted its shares by 3.5p to 128.5p.
Investors dumped shares in Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) by 4p to 17.5p after planning officials said the potash miner had underestimated the environmental damage its York Potash mine project might cause in the North York Moors National Park.