LONDON: Britain's top equity index slipped from record highs on Monday as surprisingly weak data from big metals consumer China weighed on mining stocks.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index, which touched a record high of 7,095.36 points on Friday, retreated 0.3 percent to 7,066.87 points. The FTSE remains up around 8 percent since the start of 2015.
Miners such as BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Rio Tinto were among the worst performers. A Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgrade also pushed down housebuilder Barratt Development by 3 percent, traders said.
Insurer Aviva, on the other hand, rose 1.7 percent after both Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan reinstated their coverage of the stock with "overweight" ratings.
China's exports, which had been expected to rise 12 percent, dropped 15 percent in March while imports saw the sharpest fall since the global financial crisis in 2009, deepening concern about sputtering Chinese economic growth.
The Chinese stock market shrugged off the data, with shares rising on expectations that the poor trade figures would heap pressure on Beijing to launch new economic stimulus measures.
Citigroup, however, forecast that slowing demand from China would impact iron ore prices, which in turn would put pressure on UK mining stocks.
"The data out of Asia has not been great, and that's caused a little bit of profit taking after we'd hit the record highs last week," said Central Markets' trading analyst Joe Neighbour.
LABOUR LEADS IN POLL
Some traders were also starting to adopt a slightly more cautious approach ahead of the British election on May 7.
The opposition Labour party has taken a 3 percentage point lead over Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives, according to a YouGov opinion poll published late on Sunday.
Uncertainty ahead of the election has hit sterling more than the FTSE. The British currency fell to a five-year low against the dollar on Monday.
A weaker sterling could help FTSE-listed British exporters sell more goods overseas, but Logic Investments' Ryan Mitchell said he had a small "short" on the FTSE - namely betting on a minor pullback of 1-2 percent.
"Personally, I don't think Labour will win, but if we see more polls in the coming weeks giving Labour the lead, then we will see more of a retracement in the FTSE," Mitchell said.
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