THE FTSE 100 followed international benchmarks into the red on Wednesday, as calls for US President Donald Trump's impeachment sent jitters across global markets.
London's blue chip index ended the day down 0.25 per cent, or 18.56 points, at 7,503.47, ending a three-day streak of record highs.
The French Cac 40 and German Dax also closed lower, by 1.6 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively, while American indices including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were all down more than one per cent in early US trading.
Equity markets were hit by growing calls for Mr Trump to be forced out of office, after fresh details emerged about his recent interaction with the recently-fired FBI boss James Comey.
Connor Campbell, a financial analyst at SpreadEx, said: "Investors have been shaken by reports that Trump urged the then-FBI chief Comey to drop his investigation into Michael Flynn, the latest twist in the Russia saga that is gradually engulfing the president."
In currency markets, the pound was mixed, up 0.2 per cent against the US dollar at 1.294, but down 0.2 per cent versus the euro at 1.162.
That is despite fresh data showing the UK's unemployment rate has fallen to a 32-year low of 4.6 per cent.
However, a 2.1 per cent rise in wages - excluding bonuses - failed to keep up with the rate of inflation which came in at 2.7 per cent per cent for April.
In oil markets, Brent crude prices jumped two per cent to $52.36 (£40.44) per barrel after data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed US crude stocks dropped by 1.8 million barrels last week.
In UK stocks, BP edged up 1.25p to 470.5p after the oil giant dodged another shareholder revolt over director pay as it gained backing for a slimmed down remuneration package for chief executive Bob Dudley.
Lloyds Banking Group shares rose 1.37p to 71.52p as the lender confirmed it has been fully returned to private hands nearly nine years after the Government bailed it out at the height of the financial crisis.
British Land Company shares were down 22.5p to 651.5p after revealing pre-tax profits plunged 85 per cent to £195 million in the year to the end of March after its property values fell 1.4 per cent.
SSE rose 17p to 1,468p as it reported a two per cent drop in adjusted operating profits in the energy supply division, to £389.5 million, though the wider group posted a 2.1 per cent rise in annual underlying pre-tax profits, to £1.55 billion.
Mitchells & Butlers shares plunged 17p to 258p as the All Bar One and Harvester owner said profits fell almost 10 per cent to £75m in the six months to the end of April, despite a number of measures put in place to mitigate the effects of rising inflation.
Foxtons Group dropped 3.5p to 102.5p after revenue fell 25 per cent to £28.7m in the quarter ending March 31, due in part to slowing sales in London.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Fresnillo up 43p to 1.606p, Tesco up 3.85p to 182.3p, Kingfisher up 7.5p to 365.7p, and Randgold Resources up 150p to 7,470p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Ashtead Group down 62p to 1,560p, CRH down 100p to 2,774p, British Land Company down 22.5p to 651.5p, and Hikma Pharmaceuticals down 49p to 1,717p.
ends
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here