LONDON: Britain's top equity index retreated from five-month highs on Wednesday as oil stocks slipped, while investment company Hargreaves Lansdown fell after its interim profits dipped.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down by 0.7 percent at 6,824.22 points going into the middle of the trading session, edging back after hitting its highest level since September in the previous session.
Hargreaves fell 5.5 percent, the worst-performing FTSE 100 stock in percentage terms, after the company's first-half pre-tax profits fell to 101.9 million pounds ($154.8 million) from 104.1 million pounds a year earlier.
"The problem is the competition aspect -- fees are going to come under pressure from outside, or will go down anyway as clients demand cheaper transactions," said IG analyst Chris Beauchamp, commenting on Hargreaves' results.
Oil stocks such as Tullow Oil and Royal Dutch Shell also fell, tracking a retreat in the price of crude.
Oil fell on Wednesday as renewed concerns over global demand and high stock levels halted a recovery in the price, which had fallen to six-year lows in January.
The pullback in the oil price muted the impact on stocks of a decision by China's central bank to cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, although the move lifted the shares of Asian-focused bank Standard Chartered.
Another stock that outperformed on Wednesday was media group Sky.
Sky, which was formed from the combination of Britain's BSkyB, Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia to serve 20 million customers in Europe, rose 1.8 percent after posting a 16 percent rise in first-half adjusted operating profit.
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