London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.5% at 7,549.84 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
Aviva, Barratt Developments and DS Smith were all down as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.
BT was in the black as it emerged the telecoms company was facing possible strike action after its new pay offers for UK workers was rejected by the Communication Workers Union.
The firm announced earlier that it will be giving frontline workers a £1,500 pay rise – its biggest in more than two decades.
The pay increase will be given to 58,000 workers including engineers, contact centre staff and retail staff. BT said it would be “focused on the lowest-paid workers”.
AstraZeneca was higher after JPMorgan Cazenove upped its price target to 12,000 from 10,000p and reiterated its ‘overweight’ rating.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Airtel Africa (AAF) 144.00p 3.75%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,238.00p 2.82%
BT Group (BT.A) 189.90p 2.01%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 10,630.00p 1.61%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 245.00p 1.58%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,621.00p 1.54%
Ferguson (FERG) 9,802.00p 1.28%
NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 213.30p 1.23%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,381.00p 1.06%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,620.00p 1.06%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Aviva (AV.) 426.60p -3.96%
Entain (ENT) 1,559.50p -3.82%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 510.60p -3.73%
Abrdn (ABDN) 204.30p -3.18%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,187.00p -2.24%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,964.00p -2.12%
Severn Trent (SVT) 3,143.00p -2.12%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 303.70p -1.94%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,879.00p -1.72%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,250.50p -1.65%
