(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) UK shares were slipping into the red at the lunchtime point after earlier gains as retailers felt the pain.
The index of leadinbg shares is down 0.12% to 6174.
It comes as oil continues to tumble and as consumer price inflation slowed last month (November) to a level that was worse than expected - drivem largely by the drop in the cost of transport due to fuel prices.
Among the biggest laggards was High Street bellwether () which eased 1.81% and () which eased 1.31% to 226.30p.
Telecoms giant BT.A () rose 0.8% to stand at 401.20p.
The group is in talks to buy Britain’s largest mobile network - EE - through a cash and shares deal worth £12.5bn.
The deal marks a return to the consumer mobile market after 13 years away for the former UK state telecoms firm.
It also puts BT in pole position in mobile as well as fixed line broadband services and strengthens its overall quad play offering of TV broadband landline and mobile.
Denting sentiment is also fears over the Chinese economy which were raised by the latest Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) which fell to 49.5 - signifies a contraction in activity.
David Madden at IG Index said: "The London market continues to be pulled in both directions by natural resources stocks as crippling oil prices and crumbling manufacturing figures out of China have ensured choppy trading."
In the small cap world () said the takeover of Aegean Metals Group was on target to complete by the middle of next month as it revealed drilling had begun on one of the latter’s projects.
The work on the Hot Maden gold-copper project in Artvin Province eastern Turkey is being carried out and fully funded by local partner Lidya.
The stock was one of the biggest risers in London adding over 24%.
Also up around 3% was e-commerce group blur () which continues to attract enterprise customers from around the world to its platform even in the traditionally quiet month of December.
In the UK utility company South West Water has signed up while on the European mainland global aerospace specialist Thales is now using the crowd-sourcing platform.
() shares lost ground despite chief executive Nick Warrell saying he was ‘very pleased’ with the better than expected maiden resource estimate for the Ferensola iron ore deposit in Sierra Leone.
The total JORC-compliant resource was 514mln tonnes at 31.8% iron with an easily accessible oxide component of 55.5mln tonnes at 45.39% iron. Sula set itself the task of discovering 500mln tonnes.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.