Britain's FTSE 100 fell on Thursday, led down by Astrazeneca and GlaxoSmithKline after the index earlier hit a five-year intraday high. "Pharmaceuticals are the wrong thing to be in and people just want out, and that's why the stocks are trading where they are, with no great volume going through," a market maker said.
The FTSE 100 closed down 29.8 points, or 0.5 percent, at 6,184.8, after US stocks pared earlier gains. Investors started to lock in profits after home sales data which came in at about what Wall Street was expecting, said Steve Goldman, market strategist at Weeden & Co in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Astrazeneca fell 7.6 percent, despite better-than-expected third-quarter results, after its experimental stroke medicine failed a key clinical trial and was scrapped from development, hitting an already depleted new drug pipeline. GlaxoSmithKline fell 4 percent after the trial of two key new drugs for diabetes and sepsis were postponed and discontinued respectively.
US crude oil fell to $61 a barrel but base metals rose. Miners were down, led by Anglo-American, which slipped 2.3 percent as vague bid talk subsided, traders said. Lonmin fell 1.3 percent and Rio Tinto lost 1.3 percent.
Among other decliners, British Energy fell 4.1 percent on continued negative sentiment relating to its planned closure of two nuclear reactors after finding boiler pipe cracks at similar plants, traders said.
Royal Dutch Shell led the gainers, up 2.4 percent after it beat third-year profit forecasts. Its chief executive said the company hoped to resolve problems at its Sakhalin-2 project under investigation by Russia.
"Management at Shell will no doubt raise a smile that today's figures compare well when set against arch rival BP's more troubled results earlier this week," said Keith Bowman, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. Telecoms gained on positive results from the continental European sector, analysts said. Vodafone added 1 percent and BT rose 1.1 percent.
Elsewhere British American Tobacco shares eased 1.6 percent after the cigarette maker said nine-month earnings rose 13 percent. This was partly on profit-taking after the shares had outperformed the FTSE 100 by 3 percent so far this year and partly on fears of continuing adverse currency impact, traders said.
Rivals Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher fell on related sentiment. Aviva fell 1.8 percent after the insurer posted an 18 percent rise in nine-month life and pensions sales but traders noted its French business was hit by competition from banking insurance products.
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