After a promising start UK shares were turning lower at lunch, with FTSE100 down around five points.
It came as energy giant Centrica (LON:CNA) issued a shock rights issue to tap the market for £750mln to pay off debt, shore up its credit ratings and pay for acquisitions and shares in the FTSE100 firm slumped almost 10% to 208.5p.
Investors were also put off by weak UK service sector growth, which fell to a 38-month low in April, according to official stats.
Meanwhile, optimism in business was the joint-weakest in over three years.
It comes on top of this week’s lacklustre UK construction and manufacturing number, suggesting the UK economy stalling out in Q2, suggested CMC analyst Michael Hewson.
"This trifecta of disappointment could well see the Bank of England revise down its growth forecasts for the UK economy when it meets next week for its latest policy meeting and quarterly inflation report."
FTSE100 is down around five at the time of writing, to 6,107, while in smaller caps, FTSE AIM 100 is 0.07% higher at 3,379, while the FTSEAIM All-share is down a tad - at 723.790, down 0.01%.
Orsu Metals Corp (TSE:OSU, LON:OSU) was top riser in London, up over 76% to 2.25p as it received the deposit of $100,000 due from Karasat Trading FZE under its deal for the conditional sale of the Karchiga project.
Vitesse Media PLC (LON:VIS), which rocketed over 45% to 2p a share after reporting several board changes.
The number of non-executive directors is reduced from five to three to reflect the more streamlined operations, it said.
Having been higher earlier, Alecto Minerals PLC (LON:ALO), which has renewed the permits for its Kerboule project in Burkina Faso for a further three years, shed 8% to stand at 0.115p.
Elsewhere, digital music and radio platform 7digital Group PLC (LON:7DIG)advanced over 18% to 7.25p after it won a contract with a fast growing social media platform, which will contribute to the AIM firm's revenues in 2016.
Conversely, LGO Energy Plc's (LON:LGO) shares dropped almost 22% to 0.215p as it said it had restructured its debt and simultaneously raised £3.25mln of new funds from investors.
Falanx Group (LON:FLX) shed over 31% to 4.13p as a cyber security services organisation was bought up by the AIM-listed security and intelligence provider.
Falanx has purchased Advanced Security Consulting (ASC) for a total of £435,000.
Elsewhere, mining firm Armadale Capital (LON:ACP) shed over 10% at 2.13p. It comes after news on Tuesday that it had started a 2,000 metre drill programme consisting of about 150 auger holes at its Mpokoto gold project in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.