Investors appeared to be shifting their money into defensive sectors, such as pharmaceuticals and utilities, putting drugs giants GlaxoSmithKline and Shire in demand, joined by energy firm International Power and National Grid.

Investor sentiment was hit by the news that the UK economy did worse in the last three months of 2011 than previously thought with the Office for National Statistics revising its estimates to a 0.3% contraction (from -0.2%).

Meanwhile inter-dealer broker ICAP was a big faller after it left full year guidance unchanged from that given at the time of its last update at the beginning of February. The firm's voice business has seen a pickup in interest rate markets, but credit markets remain challenging, although there has been an increase in issuance.

A number of stocks have fallen steeply after trading without the right to their latest dividends, including RSA Insurance, Prudential, Anglo American, Schroders and Eurasian Natural Resources Corp (ENRC).

Miners on the whole were proving a drag, with Antofagasta, Randgold Resources and Fresnillo all registering losses. Russian steel giant Evraz fell over 3% after saying that it expects the global steel industry to remain challenging in 2012. Nevertheless, the company reported a pre-tax profit of $873m, up from $633m in 2010.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Sage Group (SGE) 299.90p +1.63%
Whitbread (WTB) 1,836.00p +1.44%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,234.00p +1.40%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 836.00p +1.39%
Meggitt (MGGT) 404.10p +1.23%
Wolseley (WOS) 2,465.00p +1.23%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,437.50p +1.05%
International Power (IPR) 384.00p +1.03%
National Grid (NG.) 637.00p +0.95%
Next (NXT) 3,024.00p +0.90%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 107.80p -6.91%
ICAP (IAP) 394.90p -3.47%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,621.00p -3.40%
Evraz (EVR) 368.30p -3.28%
Schroders (SDR) 1,591.00p -3.11%
British Land Co (BLND) 484.40p -3.06%
Prudential (PRU) 773.50p -3.01%
Schroders (Non-Voting) (SDRC) 1,244.00p -2.89%
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 601.50p -2.83%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,150.00p -2.71%

NR

Related share prices
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) share price
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) share price
Schroders (SDR) share price
Antofagasta (ANTO) share price
ICAP (IAP) share price
National Grid (NG.) share price
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) share price
Fresnillo (FRES) share price
Evraz (EVR) share price