End-of-year selling sees FTSE fall

The London market suffered from some heavy end-of-year selling today after yesterday’s four-and-a-half year high.

Investors banked profits after the FTSE 100 Index surged to its highest level since 2001 yesterday, while losses on Wall Street last night also weighed on the market.

The Footsie fell 29.2 points to 5609.1 by mid-morning, with just over an hour of trading left before the end of the year.

But despite the slide, the top flight was still above the important 5600 mark - giving hope to investors that it could progress beyond 6000 next year.

Drug maker Shire Pharmaceuticals led the sell-off after topping yesterday’s leaders board. The stock slipped 13p to 740p as investors banked profits.

It was followed down by another of yesterday’s top performers, housebuilder Persimmon, which fell 18p to 1252p after its recent all-time high.

And high street retailer Marks & Spencer – the toast of the City since September when it stood at 345p – was off 7p to 503p today.

Oil heavyweights BP and Royal Dutch Shell were on the back foot – down 4.5p to 618.5p and 9p to 1852p respectively.

Last night’s big news was the £3.3bn (€4.8bn) deal between UK-based Hilton Group and its US cousin Hilton Hotels Corporation to reunite the famous hotels brand under single ownership in America.

Hopes of the deal sent shares in Hilton Group soaring yesterday, but investors reacted less warmly today with the stock slipping 4.5p to 364.25p.

But there was better news for mining stocks which gave the Footsie some buoyancy. Antofagasta topped the leaders board up 30p to 1860p, while Kazakhmys was up 4p to 774p and BHP Billiton cheered a penny to 945p.

Real estate firms were also in favour, with British Land up 6.5p to 1068p, Land Securities ahead 2p to 1653p and Hammerson half a penny better off at 1021p.