Britain's FTSE 100 index closed below a fresh four-year high on Thursday as investors cashed in some of their recent gains in mining shares, although oils held up on the high crude price.
Online casino group PartyGaming dropped 8.4 percent to 87-1/2 pence after a disappointing debut from rival 888.com, whose shares fell on first day dealings. Talk that PartyGaming was pondering a move for rival Betfair also weighed on the shares, although PartyGaming declined to comment.
Boots was the latest retailer to tell of difficult trading conditions, falling 3.3 percent after it said sales slid in the first half of the year and that it saw no sign that the market would get any easier for the rest of the year.
Clothing and food retailer Marks & Spencer bucked the weaker retail trend, rising 1.9 percent as traders reported revived talk of a management buyout. A spokeswoman for M&S, which was at the centre of wide-ranging bid speculation earlier this year, declined comment.
The FTSE 100 closed down 16.6 points at 5,478.2, although it earlier touched 5,508.4, its first trip across the 5,500 barrier since August 200l. Fallers outweighed gainers by 2 to 1, with losses seen across the telecoms and banking sectors as well as among miners.
"We've seen a lot of very strong gains in the last month. I'm not surprised to see some investors cashing in on that," said Alex Scott, an analyst at Seven Investment Management.
He said markets were looking at a number of issues affecting the global economy, including pressures on inflation from oil prices in the wake of disruption from hurricanes in the United States.
"There are questions about how sustainable growth assumptions are, how much is inflation ticking up? Questions about the strength of oil prices, the impact that will have on the consumer. How bad the impact the hurricanes will be on oil infrastructure? Is it going to be a long lasting issue?" he said.
PartyGaming's dive was the latest in a series of big hits since its June flotation at 116p. The shares have dived from a record 179-1/2p, hurt by the company's comments earlier this month pointing towards moderating growth in online gaming.
Traders linked PartyGaming's latest slide to jitters over waning appetite for shares in the sector.
"It is because 888 went public today, and that has been a blood bath," one dealer said. "888 came in at 175 (pence), opened up at 182p and is now down 12p. It has just put pressure on the whole sector."
Among the miners Antofagasta fell 1.4 percent, while Anglo American and Rio Tinto both lost just over 1 percent, ignoring a fresh record high in the copper price.
"Some of these miners have turned around, and they've effectively been the only reason the market's been up over the last couple of sessions. It's nothing more than a little bit of profit-taking," said one dealer.
Hotel and gaming group Hilton closed up 2.4 percent at 315p after upbeat meetings between company executives and investors, while dealers reported Dutch bank ABN Amro upped its price target for the shares to 375p from 350p.
Midcap music retailer HMV fell another 4 percent after Wednesday's 12 percent slide on disappointing first half sales after ABN Amro cut its rating to "hold" from "add", citing an increasingly challenging outlook for the firm.
The retailers generally were soft in the wake of Wednesday's weak UK retail sales data, with electricals retailer DSG down 1.9 percent and clothing retailer Next down 1.7 percent.
Oil shares helped offset the impact of falling miners, with BP and Royal Dutch Shell both up 0.7 percent as crude held above $66 a barrel on concerns hurricane-damaged US refineries might not be able to meet winter heating fuel demand.