Both the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 were lower in London on Wednesday. The 100 dropped 0.7 percent to 5,860.0, while the 200 was 0.4 percent lower to 9.454.2.
Miners were mixed on the session. Anglo American fell 3.6 percent to £23.80 after its shares went ex-dividend, while BHP Billiton dropped 4 percent to £10.14 on a weak annual report. Xstrata, however, added 0.7 percent to £22.65 after it was said that it might not have to resort to a huge rights issue in order to fund its purchase of Canadian miner Falconbridge.
High raw materials costs were blamed for the 1.5 percent decline to 511p for drinks can manufacturer Rexam, which uses aluminium in its products. The retreat came ahead of an earnings report scheduled to be released later today.
In the retail sector, Debenhams was 1.8 percent lower to 179½p on rumors that clothing sales are down for the department stores group.
Bucking the general trend downward was Regal Petroleum. The oil exploration group added 5.6 percent to 118p on news that the company’s legal woes in the Ukraine might be on the way to being solved as well as on the possibility of good news from its current exploration project in Egypt.