LONDON: UK shares fell on Tuesday as resources stocks came under pressure from oil and metals prices weighed down by persistent concerns of a global oversupply.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 1.3 percent at 6,087.77 points by 0822 GMT, slightly outperforming the broader European market.
Oil prices extended their losses on slowing demand for gasoline and doubts whether oil producers can reach an agreement to curb a global supply glut.
This is hit firms Britain's Royal Dutch Shell and BP, which were down 2.7 percent and 2.3 percent respectively, taking around 13 points off the index.
"We're now currently within the third week of downside for oil prices and that follows on from five consecutive weeks of gains in U.S. crude oil, so I feel like we've seen quite a substantial rally - we're taking back some of that. We're also seeing people positioning as precursor to the OPEC meeting," Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG, said.
The world's largest oil producers are due to meet in Doha on April 17 to negotiate an output freeze.
"At some point people are probably going to start taking some profits."
The top fallers on the blue-chip index were mining stocks, however, with Glencore, BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Rio Tinto all falling between 3.6 to 5.4 percent.
In other sectors, shares in grocer Tesco were hit by a downgrade from investment bank Deutsche Bank, which cut its rating on the stock to "hold" from "buy", sending its shares 1.9 percent lower.
The investment bank cited the supermarket's share price strength in recent months.
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