London - Britain's blue-chip FTSE 100 pared some of the previous session's strong gains on Thursday in cautious trading ahead of an interest rate decision from the Bank of England and the index looked set to snap a week-long rally.
The benchmark eased 0.3 percent to 6,318.33 points by 08h29 GMT, having hit a 6-week high on Wednesday and dipping into negative territory for the first time this month. It has fallen more than 11 percent this year.
“The market's had a decent rise over the last few days, so it may just be a case of it ... run out of steam, and it needs another catalyst,” The Share Centre investment research analyst, Ian Forrest, said.
Trading was cautious as investors waited for the Bank of England's interest rate announcement, due at 11h00 GMT.
Mining stocks were among the biggest losers with Glencore down 1.3 percent after broker Canaccord Genuity cut its target price citing a lower commodity price assumption on the back of weakening of commodity-backed currencies.
The FTSE 350 mining index was fell 0.2 percent, losing some of the gains made on Wednesday when it reached its highest since the end of August, closing up 5.8 percent.
Among standout gainers, easyJet and IAG rose 1.3 percent and 0.5 percent respectively, with analysts citing a boost from Air-France-KLM's report that total group traffic for September 2015 was up 22 percent.
REUTERS