The FTSE 100 was down 0.32% at 7,511.72 at 1420 BST.
Banks were among the top performers, with Lloyds and NatWest trading up amid the prospect of more Bank of England rate hikes.
On the downside, Ladbrokes owner Entain retreated after it was fined £17m by the Gambling Commission for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.
The company will pay £14m for failures at its online business LC International Limited, which runs 13 websites including ladbrokes.com, coral.co.uk and foxybingo.com. It will also pay £3m for failures at its Ladbrokes Betting & Gaming Limited operation which runs 2,746 gambling premises across Britain.
The fine will be directed towards socially responsible purposes as part of a regulatory settlement.
Housebuilder Persimmon dropped as it posted a fall in interim profits, but reiterated completion guidance and said price rises were offsetting cost inflation.
The company said pre-tax profit for the six months to June 30 fell to £439.7 from £480m. Total revenue fell to £1.68bn from £1.84bn, while completions fell to 6,652 from 7,406 against a strong comparator last year when demand for larger homes surged during the Covid pandemic.
Guidance of 14,500-15,000 completions for the full year was maintained as Persimmon said demand remained “strong”, and forward-sales rates at 90%.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Fresnillo (FRES) 734.40p 1.60%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,450.00p 1.28%
Glencore (GLEN) 489.00p 1.26%
Diageo (DGE) 3,891.00p 1.12%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 6,616.00p 0.88%
BP (BP.) 430.25p 0.88%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,308.00p 0.87%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,820.50p 0.77%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 3,536.00p 0.57%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 11,030.00p 0.57%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Prudential (PRU) 946.60p -4.29%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 82.90p -3.49%
Entain (ENT) 1,363.00p -3.09%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 148.60p -3.03%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,580.00p -2.92%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 119.46p -2.88%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,358.00p -2.80%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,798.00p -2.76%
Schroders (SDR) 2,906.00p -2.74%
Abrdn (ABDN) 168.05p -2.58%
