MIXED signals on the global economy ensured blue-chip shares came under pressure as the FTSE 100 Index gave up some of its recent gains.
Weak Chinese industrial data weighed on investor sentiment after figures from the world's second biggest economy showed manufacturing activity fell to a six month low for November.
And fears that Europe is about to fall back into recession were fuelled when Markit said its gauge of business activity fell to a 16 month low of 51.4 in November from 52.1 in October.
Investors were spooked by the updates, leading to falls of more than 2 per cent for a number of mining stocks as the FTSE 100 Index dipped by as much as 50 points at one stage before finishing 17.7 points lower at 6,678.9.
The late recovery reflected some better economic news in the United States.
In contrast to the stagnation in Europe, the UK economy continues to show promise after official figures revealed a bigger-than-expected jump in retail sales of 0.8 per cent last month.
Much of the improvement was due to increased consumer demand driven by the impact of falling prices.
The pound was slightly higher against the Euro at 1.25 but was flat against the US dollar at 1.57 after the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting reminded traders that monetary policy in the US is on a path to tightening.
In stocks, better-than-expected half-year results helped sustainable technologies firm Johnson Matthey to the top of the FTSE 100 risers' board.
Pre-tax profits for the six months to September 30 were up three per cent to £207.8 million while sales excluding precious metals rose by two per cent. Chief executive Robert MacLeod said he expected good underlying growth for the second half. Shares rose six per cent, or 189p, to 3,341p.
Johnson was joined by Babcock International after the engineering support services company reported a 32 per cent rise in half-year profits to £187 million. Its order book has also grown by more than 50 per cent to £18.5 billion. Its shares lifted 66p to 1,184p.
British Gas owner Centrica was 4.7p lower at 293.9p after warning that earnings per share would be lower for the year partly because of the mild winter knocking £100 off average dual fuel bills.
Meanwhile, state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland was little moved by the long-expected announcement of £56m in UK regulatory fines over its IT meltdown in 2012. Shares fell 3.2p to 380.6p.
The biggest FTSE 100 risers were Johnson Matthey up 189p at 3,341p, Babcock International ahead 66p at 1,184p, Petrofac up 31p at 1,178p and TUI Travel ahead 10.5p at 427.1p.
The biggest fallers were Rio Tinto down 77p at 2,865p, BHP Billiton off 42.5p at 1,582.5p, National Grid down 24.5p at 936p and Sports Direct International off 15.5p at 638p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article