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Stock exchange speculators continued to favour the Royal Bank of Scotland, up 1.2 per cent following an announcement by Spanish group Santander of an offer to buy around 300 UK branches, reports Reuters.
The trend placed increasing pressure on defensives such as pharmaceuticals and tobacco companies, with GlaxoSmithKline and British American Tobacco falling 1.6 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively.
Companies experiencing internal unrest also suffered, reveals the news conglomerate.
Tesco, threatened by resistance to a company report on executive pay, lost 1.1 per cent, while fears of industrial action at BT saw its share price slip by 1.7 per cent, the highest loss of any FTSE 100 company.
Insurance group Aviva was one of the biggest individual movers, benefiting from a rating upgrade by JP Morgan from 'neutral' to 'overweight', which lifted its target price from 285p to 509p.
