ondon’s FTSE 100 closed in the red on Thursday, bringing a bruising August to an end for the top shares in the City.
The index closed down 34.54 points, or 0.5%, finishing the day at 7,439.13 and bringing a six-day winning streak to an end.
It means that the FTSE has lost around 260 points since the end of July, but it had been even lower part-way through the month.
“It’s been a subdued end to what has been a negative month for European markets, with the FTSE 100 once again finding a base just above the 7,210 level, the third time this year the UK blue-chip has bounced off this key level,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
The FTSE had spent much of Thursday in the green, but slowly started to give back its meagre gains and falling into the red during the afternoon.
By the end of the day, Glencore was bottom of the index followed not far behind by fellow miners Endeavour and Fresnillo.
Prudential, which had gained much ground on Wednesday on the back of its financial results, was struggling a day later.
In Europe, the German Dax index closed up 0.4% while France’s Cac 40 was up 0.7%.
On currency markets, the pound was trading down 0.4% against buying 1.267 dollars shortly after the close of play on European markets. It gained 0.4% against the euro to 1.168.
In company news, Frasers Group has increased its stake in fellow fashion firm Boohoo from 7.8% to 9.1%, it revealed on Thursday.
The company, which revealed its first stake in Boohoo around two months ago, saw its shares rise 1.4%, while Boohoo’s shares rose by 7.5%.
It was a worse day for Revolution Beauty, which is part-owned by Boohoo. Shares plummeted 16.2% on Thursday after the business revealed a new chief executive and said that its losses had narrowed.
The make-up company has recently been fighting with its main shareholder Boohoo over the composition of its leadership team.
In June, Revolution Beauty defied a shareholder vote and reinstates its executives. Later its chief executive and chairman announced they would step down.
On Thursday, it said that Walgreens veteran Lauren Brindley would take over as chief executive.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Ocado, up 78.2p to 871.6p, Rolls-Royce, up 5.5p to 222.3p, Flutter Entertainment, up 200p to 14,410p, JD Sports, up 2p to 145.25p, and Phoenix Group, up 7p to 521p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Glencore, down 18.4p to 420.25p, Prudential, down 31.6p to 968.2p, Endeavour Mining, down 46p to 1,608p, Diageo, down 68p to 3,252.5p, and NatWest Group, down 3.6p to 231.6p.